Lost Logia Incident Report: Halo Array
by ZankouHoshizora
Summary: Returning to headquarters from unadministered world #97, the Time-Space Administration Bureau cruiser Arthra finds itself in the middle of a war, over a strange ring-shaped world...
1. Unusual Readings

In the space between dimensions, a ship sailed silently through the void. It vaguely resembled an electrical plug, with two thin prongs stretching forward from a bulky, rounded main body in the back. Its outer hull was a mix of white plating and black steel, giving it an almost unfinished look. And near the front of the main body, exactly in the center of the ship, sat the main bridge.

The bridge was a wide, spacious room, also shaped roughly like a U. This time, the U opened up to the back of the ship, with two doors at the tips of the U and a raised platform in the center. Only that rear wall, with the doors, was an actual wall; the entire rest of the wall surface was given over to a screen offering a panoramic view of the dimensional void outside the ship. Overlaid on that screen were a few indicators displaying the ship's status, none of which showed any problems.

On the broad floor of the bridge, four or five uniformed bridge crew tapped diligently away at their work stations. One of them turned back and looked up at the raised center of the bridge, to address the uniformed woman sitting there.

"All engines at full power, Admiral Lindy. We will arrive at Time-Space Administration Bureau headquarters in approximately three hours."

The woman he was addressing stood up and smiled. Long green hair, tied up in a ponytail, contrasted somewhat sharply with the precise blue uniform that she was wearing. Furthermore, despite her military bearing and well-kept uniform, the smile came easily to her face, as if it was perfectly natural for her.

"That's excellent news, Alex," she replied calmly. "Let me know if anything out of the ordinary happens."

"Of course, ma'am!" he replied with a sharp salute.

Replying with a more relaxed salute of her own, Lindy sat back down. Sighing, she mentally reviewed the events of the last few days.

_I'm glad we were able to bring the Book of Darkness Incident to a satisfactory conclusion…_ she mused. _We have Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate to thank for that. Had we gone with standard Bureau procedure, we would have done a lot more damage._

Barely five days prior, the Time-Space Administration Bureau L-class dimensional cruiser _Arthra_ had been through a battle. An artifact from a forgotten past had emerged on an otherwise unremarkable world, unadministered world number 97. It was a powerful magical artifact that had nearly brought genocide to the entire world, and stopping it would have meant causing almost as much damage with the _Arthra_'s equally powerful magical cannon.

Thankfully, some of the allied mages from that world (all two of them) had managed to devise a method to destroy the artifact without causing any collateral damage. The resulting battle had been short and fairly significantly one-sided, ending with the finishing blow from the _Arthra_.

With the mission concluded, the _Arthra_ had stayed on for a day or two to ensure that clean-up was properly completed, but now it was returning to headquarters. Reports had to be filed, after all. And accompanying it back to the Bureau's main branch were a few… special passengers.

"Admiral Lindy," someone asked as they came onto the bridge through one of the doors in the back. Turning, Lindy realized that it was Nanoha who had just tried to get her attention. Rather than a military uniform, the young girl was dressed in her usual school uniform, and Raising Heart hung in its typical place around her neck. With her was Fate, dressed in the same uniform.

"Nanoha, Fate, hello!" she greeted them warmly as they walked up to stand behind her. "How is Hayate doing?"

"She's fine," Fate reported quietly. "She's sleeping right now in the sick bay."

"Do you think she'll be able to walk again soon?" Nanoha wondered out loud.

Any response to that question was lost as a siren howled through the bridge of the _Arthra_. Lindy's gaze snapped to the bridge crew below, seeking an explanation. The siren faded as quickly as it had come, though, falling silent before anyone could say a word.

"What just happened?" she demanded sternly, holding her gaze on the bridge crew below.

"Admiral!" Alex yelled, studying his readouts closely. Without looking up, he reported, "The sensors picked up several dimensional tremors… no, a series of full dimensional rifts! Originating from a nearby world!"

"What?" she demanded in shock.

"All were very small-scale disturbances only, ma'am," he continued with the report. "And somehow, each one vanished as quickly as it appeared!"

"That shouldn't be possible…" the Admiral murmured. "Amy!"

"Working on it, Admiral!" a voice came back over the bridge's intercom system. Deeper in the main body of the ship, in the combat information center, Amy frantically tapped away at her console, analyzing what little sensor data they had.

A long several seconds passed, everyone waiting expectantly for a verdict. "Amy…" Lindy finally prompted.

"No good, Admiral!" she was forced to report. "There's just not enough information here to figure out what's going on!"

"Is it possible for a more severe rift to develop?" Lindy asked in response.

As if summoned by her words, the alert siren went off once more. On the screen, a display popped up, with one particular point highlighted. "Another rift, ma'am!" Alex reported almost frantically. "Larger than any of the ones from the first group!"

By the time his report had finished, this second siren had also fallen silent, and the flashing indicator on the screen quieted. "Again?" Lindy confirmed.

"Yes ma'am, this rift has faded as well."

Lindy sighed in something almost approaching frustration. "We can't just ignore the potential threat here," she calmly muttered. Turning back to Nanoha and Fate, she continued, "I am sorry for getting you two caught up in this. If you like, we can try to send you two back to Earth…" she trailed off as she realized that Nanoha was already shaking her head.

Almost smiling, Nanoha replied, "We'll help out, however we can." Fate nodded her assent, blushing slightly.

Lindy rewarded them both with a grateful nod before turning back around to face the bridge crew. "All hands!" she commanded in a ringing voice. Automatic computer systems took her commands and projected them through the ship's intercom system. "Prepare for dimensional transfer!"

The ship's engines hummed powerfully as it tore open a gate in the dimensional void. Without any further hesitation, the TSAB warship made its way into one of the many worlds of the dimensional sea.

What greeted them was a scene defying all expectations. The _Arthra_ had warped into orbit around a massive gas giant, dwarfing the frigate-sized Bureau craft by several orders of magnitude. A short distance away, a moon sat next to the gas giant, large enough to be a planet in its own right. And while the planets were large, they were at least partially normal… the ring-shaped world, clearly constructed by someone, that was hovering in orbit nearby was most assuredly not.

"What… _is_ that?" Lindy demanded in awe. A series of informational graphics popped up on the main screen, displaying the planet, the moon, and the ring-shaped construct.

"Ma'am," Alex began, "it appears the inner surface of the ring is a livable planetary surface, with an atmosphere nearly identical to ours."

"Admiral!" Amy's voice cut in over the intercom again, interrupting Alex's description of the ring. "We're picking up a number of other ships in this area… it looks like there's a battle in progress!"

A new display popped up on the main screen, eclipsing the other information already present. On this display was a map of the battlefield. The edge of the gas giant filled the entire upper part of the screen, with the mysterious ring a short distance away from that. Approaching the ring was one solitary ship, confronted by ten more in a loose formation on the other side of the ring. As they watched, one of those ten dots flared and disappeared. The _Arthra_ observed the entire scene from behind and off to the side of the lone ship, around its 4 o'clock.

"Amy, send out a signal to all of those ships," Lindy commanded. "Maybe we can figure out what's going on here once we've stopped this battle."

* * *

"Captain, we've taken out three of the enemy battlecruisers, but we're still vastly outnumbered here," Cortana's voice reported calmly.

"Just hold out as long as you can, Cortana," Captain Keyes responded with equal calm, staring out the window in front of him. The expanse of space outside the bridge was anything but peaceful; flares of light marked the presence of exploding fighters and missiles, and in the distance, sunlight gleamed off the fleet of Covenant ships. Oddly enough, none of them had fired any of their heaviest weapons, but Keyes wasn't about to question the small favors. Besides, the sheer number of Covenant boarding craft that had already docked with the _Pillar of Autumn_ was enough of a problem.

Just as he was about to ask for a status report on the battle within the _Pillar of Autumn_, though, Cortana suddenly reappeared over the console. "Another ship has just appeared out near the slipspace entry point!" she reported urgently.

Keyes's brow furrowed in surprise. "Ours or theirs?"

"I'm looking into that now," she replied, "but… it doesn't appear to match with any known UNSC _or_ Covenant designs."

"Then whose-"

The question was interrupted by an incessant beeping. Cortana's avatar frowned. "Incoming signal from the unknown ship. Parsing the data now."

After a few seconds of silence, Cortana's form fuzzed and vanished, replaced by a two-dimensional picture of an unknown woman in a blue military uniform. Cortana's voice continued, "It appears to be a real-time video transmission."

"This is Admiral Lindy Harlaown of the Time-Space Administration Bureau, commanding the _Arthra_," the message began. The _Autumn_'s bridge crew exchanged incredulous looks as it continued, "Your current actions present a threat to the fabric of dimensional space. Please stand down immediately and explain the current situation."

As the video ended, a low-level murmur broke out on the bridge. Reappearing over the console, Cortana practically snorted. "Either they have no idea what that Covenant fleet is capable of, or that one little ship is a lot more powerful than any of ours."

Keyes merely frowned. "Cortana, if you can, send a reply. Inform them that we're not just going to stand down because some random ship told us to. I'd be happy to talk to them, but it's going to have to wait until after this battle is over."

"Aye aye, sir," she acknowledged the order. "Your confidence in our eventual victory is heartwarming."

"Oh, I don't know about winning," he replied craftily. "We are going to _survive_ this one though. Where's the Master Chief?"

"Cryo Two was overrun just a minute or two ago," Cortana replied. "But the Master Chief had already left, and should be here shortly." After a slight pause, she continued, "What about their survival, sir? Four of the Covenant battlecruisers are breaking off and vectoring toward the unknown contact."

"Well, I guess we'll see whether or not they have the strength to back up that order after all," Keyes murmured.

* * *

Having just finished sending a message to the other ships in orbit, Admiral Lindy turned to note that Chrono was now standing next to Nanoha and Fate, all three of whom were looking at her with varying degrees of surprise.

Chrono was the first to speak, frowning slightly. "Admiral, are you sure such a bold declaration of intent was a good idea?"

Lindy merely smiled. "We have to give them the chance to explain themselves, don't we?"

"I don't deny that," Chrono assented reluctantly. "But what do you plan to do when they decide not to be reasonable?"

Her face almost visibly darkened with something approaching sadness. Slowly, she pulled a crystal rod out of her pocket, from which hung a small red key. "We'll only have one choice if that happens, won't we?" she mused softly, looking down at the key in her hand with an almost haunted expression.

From below, Alex's voice rose. "Admiral, we're receiving a response from one of the ships!"

As he finished speaking, the forward screen was filled with the picture of a woman, or something in that shape anyway. She was entirely blue in color, and fragments of what looked like binary code streamed over her form.

"This is the UNSC _Pillar of Autumn_ to the _Arthra._ Please be advised that we have no intention of standing down, although we will not attack you, and will be happy to speak with you once the current battle has concluded. The Covenant might not be so welcoming. Out."

At that, the recorded message simply winked out, and the screen's primary function as a window to the area around the _Arthra_ resumed. In the distance, the metal block of a ship that had just identified itself as the _Pillar of Autumn_ was just barely visible, a flare of orange light bursting from its surface as something exploded within the ship. To the naked eye, the armada of Covenant cruisers beyond that was only visible as points of reflected light.

"The… Covenant?" Nanoha asked curiously. "What was she talking about?"

"I have a feeling we're going to find out!" Amy's almost panicked voice responded over the intercom. "Four of the other ships have changed course and are heading right this way!"

As she spoke, the battlefield map reappeared. Aside from the now-identified _Pillar of Autumn_, there were now only eight other large ships depicted, and four fuzzy dots indicated the debris fields that used to be ships. Of the eight functioning ships, four were moving more swiftly, breaking away from the attack on the _Pillar of Autumn_ and zeroing in on the _Arthra_.

A silhouette flashed into existence next to the lead dot in the formation approaching the Arthra. Numbers and letters scrolled past almost too quickly to read, detailing the size and apparent threat presented. The smooth, bulbous ship was easily twice the size of the _Arthra_ in any dimension, and had a number of protrusions consistent with turrets of some kind.

Sighing, Lindy stood up. "Prepare to fire the Arc-en-Ciel," she commanded.

"Y-yes ma'am!" Amy replied, voice shuddering slightly in shock and surprise. "Arc-en-Ciel, activate barrel!"

Out in front of the _Arthra_, three rings of light appeared, forming a channel nearly as long as the ship itself. In the very center of the second ring, the largest of the three, a fierce light began building, surrounded by a halo of rainbow-colored light.

"The Arc-en-Ciel is charged and ready, ma'am!" Alex reported in the next moment. A thin line appeared on the map display, intersecting the lead cruiser.

"Firing lock system interface, open," Lindy ordered. A column of light shimmered into existence in front of her, and resolved itself into a small bluish cube with a keyhole. As she inserted the key she was holding, the cube shaded over to red.

"Wait!" Nanoha protested. "Don't we need to warn them or something before-"

"Arc-en-Ciel, _fire!_"

The key clicked over to the right with a decisive snap. In front of the _Arthra_, the sphere of glowing energy resolved itself into a devastating beam of light, impacting the lead Covenant cruiser cleanly on its bow. A green field of energy expanded outward from the impact point, enveloping the four massive cruisers.

Everything seemed to freeze for the briefest second, as if in anticipation. Then, in an instant, the screen lit up as the energy field seemed to simply explode. When the light faded, the four Covenant cruisers had simply ceased to exist.

"…we kill them all…" Nanoha finished weakly, in the silence that had fallen over the bridge.

"We had no choice," Chrono rebuked her sternly. "They offered no response to our message and were advancing on us aggressively. Firing first was the only sound option."

"But still…" she protested.

"180 seconds until the Arc-en-Ciel is fully recharged!" Alex interrupted the argument with a status report. "Enemy ships are moving!"

The four remaining Covenant ships on the monitor were scattering, opening up some distance between themselves, the ring, and the _Pillar of Autumn._ As they watched, the _Autumn_ took that offered chance and dove right through the formation, making a beeline for the ring world.

Then one of the Covenant ships began flashing red on the monitor. "A-Admiral!" Amy's stunned voice cut in over the intercom. "We're detecting a dimensional rift again!"

"What?" Lindy responded. The dot representing that ship vanished off the display.

"Rift is closing… it looks like the ship went _into_ it!" Amy reported, still clearly stunned.

The entire bridge crew just stared at the monitor, in varying states of shock themselves. Fate had gone stark white, and almost inadvertently mumbled, "Wasn't… Mother trying to travel through a rift…?"

"She failed," Chrono pointed out dryly. "Besides, that was months ago, so-"

The emergency siren cut him off. On the map, the space behind the ship began flashing red. Before anyone had the time to react, the massive bulk of a Covenant battlecruiser emerged from what appeared to be a shimmering portal of some kind, almost directly behind and above the _Arthra_. A swarm of smaller craft came pouring out of the large ship's hangars, and its weapons began glowing ominously.

"Get us _out_ of here! Emergency dimensional shift!" Admiral Lindy commanded as the _Arthra_'s shields flared with multiple pulse laser impacts. The thin barrier, designed to resist magical attacks, failed almost instantly against the laser barrage.

The bridge rocked as the _Arthra_ twisted in space, attempting to dodge the furious rain of fire long enough to escape. Before it could vanish into the dimensional void, though, the space in front of the ship filled with a storm of fire. A plasma torpedo tore into the _Arthra_'s portside prong, reducing it to cinders in an instant. Only the angle of the shot, from above to below, saved the _Arthra_ from complete annihilation.

In the next moment, the world around the _Arthra_ began to change, from the starry blackness of 'normal' outer space to the twisting colors of the space between dimensions. However, the Covenant hadn't yet finished with the small cruiser. As the dimensional void asserted itself fully, another heavy impact rocked the ship, and the clang of metal on metal echoed through the bridge.

The _Arthra_ hung, battered, in the space between dimensions. Its symmetry was destroyed, with a smoking hole where one of the two forward prongs of the ship was supposed to be. The black scars of laser strikes decorated its white plating. Most ominously, though, the smooth, bluish-purple lump of a Covenant Phantom troop transport sat on top of the _Arthra_, firmly attached to the Time-Space Administration Bureau cruiser.


	2. Boarding Action

**Author's note:** Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed the first chapter. It'll probably take me longer to write the next part, if only because the holidays are fast approaching and I won't have as much free time to write... But I digress. Read, review, and (hopefully) enjoy.

Also, as a disclaimer, I don't own Nanoha or Halo.

* * *

"Captain!" Amy's panicked voice carried over the intercom. "Right before transition, a ship of some kind attached itself to our hull, and we carried them along with us!"

"Marines!" Admiral Lindy commanded in response. "Deploy to the contact point and defend the _Arthra_!"

As she gave the order, the ship shook again, and the faint sound of an explosion drifted onto the bridge. "Admiral, these, these _things_… they're not human!" a panicked voice reported over the intercom before dissolving into static.

"Report!" Lindy demanded.

"Admiral," a different voice replied, "we've made contact with approximately two dozen hostiles, non-human. They're not using magic… primarily some kind of directed energy weapon. We can't hold them back!"

Before the report even finished, Chrono's staff was in his hands, and his barrier jacket deployed with a flash as he strode for the doors to the bridge. "I'm going," he stated simply. "Nanoha, Fate, protect the bridge."

"I'm going too!" Nanoha shot back, yanking Raising Heart off its necklace. "Raising Heart Excelion!"

"Stand by… ready," her device replied. A cloud of magenta light consumed Nanoha, and then shattered. Nanoha's school uniform had vanished, to be replaced by her blue and white barrier jacket. She held Raising Heart, now in its staff form, loosely in one hand.

"We can't let you go alone, Chrono," Fate agreed calmly. "Bardiche Assault."

"Get set," her device responded. Fate was surrounded by yellow light, but otherwise the process was much the same. Her barrier jacket was primarily black, with a long cape. Bardiche had become an axe-like weapon, which Fate held in ready position.

Chrono sighed. "Just stay behind me then." He tore out of the bridge at top speed, Nanoha and Fate barely keeping up. The red-lit corridors of the _Arthra_ flew past as they raced toward the battle.

Within a half minute, the sounds of battle could be heard from up ahead. Shouting and screams mixed with the sound of weapons fire, both the laser-like zapping sounds of Midchildan magical attacks and a slightly different, unfamiliar noise. As they continued forward, the sound became more and more intermittent, as the battle ahead reached some kind of conclusion.

As Chrono rounded the next corner, he slowed up suddenly, causing Nanoha and Fate to nearly knock him over as they charged up behind him. The reason for his hesitation was immediately apparent: the battle was all but over, and the _Arthra_'s marines had lost. Bodies littered the hallway they had just entered. The majority were human, their white armor cracked open or even just melted away in some cases. Midchildan devices lay scattered around where the _Arthra_'s marines had dropped them.

The one body that wasn't human, though, was of far more interest. While it was somewhat difficult to tell, it looked to be maybe five and a half feet tall, wearing yellow armor that was cracked in a dozen places. A breathing mask of some kind obscured half its face, and the visible skin on its face was a mottled grey shade. And in the ceiling almost directly above the alien corpse, a hole glowed with purple light.

"Why didn't we encounter any of the ene-" Fate started to wonder out loud.

An explosion cut her off. From a side corridor up ahead, one of the _Arthra_'s marines flew out, accompanied by a quick burst of blue flames. He slammed into the side wall of the corridor and slumped down with a sigh, his entire front side seared black.

"They must have gone that way," Chrono stated grimly. Advancing without any further hesitation, he rounded the corner, bringing up a barrier of magical energy as he did so.

That shield saved his life. The round, magic circle-like shield intercepted a volley of green bolts of energy, deflecting them into the walls and ceiling of the side corridor. Five more of the strange, alien creatures had fired on him without warning, chattering something in a high-pitched voice about enemies.

Worse yet, behind that group of enemies was a taller, almost reptilian bipedal humanoid. The creature waved a two-pronged weapon, the like of which Chrono had never seen before, and roared something unintelligible.

Coolly, Chrono leveled his staff in response and unleashed a volley of blue bolts of energy. The precisely-aimed attack tore through the shorter aliens, dropping three of them in a spray of luminous blue blood. The remaining two were knocked to the ground, armor cracking as it took the blows.

The taller, blue-armored one, however, merely stood tall as a bolt zeroed in on his chest. It slammed into him and flared into a small explosion, one that was entirely rejected by a shimmering energy covering his form.

"A shield?" Chrono cursed. As the alien leveled his strange weapon, Chrono hurriedly brought up another energy shield to defend himself, unable to dodge with Fate and Nanoha right behind him. The magical barrier shuddered as it deflected a rain of blue plasma bolts, cracking slightly under the strain.

Suddenly, Fate's voice issued forth from behind him. "Get down, Chrono!" she yelled.

A mechanical-sounding "Haken Form" from Bardiche, and the steadily weakening shield in front of him, provided all the motivation he needed. Chrono hurriedly hit the deck just as his shield shattered, clearing the way for Fate to take over.

"Haken Saber," Bardiche declared almost calmly. Fate took the scythe that Bardiche had become and swung it, releasing a whirling halo of yellow energy at the taller alien. Plasma bolts disintegrated in midair as the blade of force cut through them, zeroing in on their source.

The alien didn't even have time to dodge before the attack slammed into him. A massive explosion echoed through the corridor. When the dust faded, none of the enemies remained standing.

Chrono took a few steps forward, followed closely by Fate. Kneeling down, he examined one of the unmoving aliens, and the weapon lying by its side. "What _are_ these things?" he asked rhetorically, not expecting an answer.

A low growl, and the thump of something landing behind them, interrupted their musings. Nanoha, taking up the rear, spun around in surprise to see a gold-armored alien swinging a crackling blue sword at her face.

"Protection Powered," Raising Heart interrupted the attack. A magenta-colored, shimmering barrier faded into existence an instant before the sword slammed into it. It sparked as it tried to cut through Raising Heart's barricade.

"Why are you attacking us?" Nanoha demanded angrily, holding the line firmly against the sudden attack.

Suddenly, the alien spoke, not in some unrecognizable tongue, but in perfectly understandable English. "Your destruction is the will of the gods!" he declared proudly, bearing down hard with the energy sword while clenching his other hand into a fist.

Nanoha's eyes widened in shock. Before she could react, the alien punched out, straining the barrier beyond its limits. With a noise akin to breaking glass, the field shattered, and the alien's punch knocked Nanoha across the corridor, the energy sword just barely missing her. She slammed into Chrono, knocking both of them to the ground.

"Nanoha!" Fate screamed. She spared a glance for Nanoha and Chrono, both of whom looked to be stunned, but still alive. Leveling Bardiche at the offending enemy, she fixed him with a furious glare, and coldly continued, "You've hurt Nanoha… I can't forgive you for that." As she spoke, a sphere of yellow fire blossomed in her open palm.

Roaring, the sword-wielding foe charged, covering the distance separating them in no more than a few seconds. As it turned out, however, he was a step or two short when Fate brought her hand back around.

"Plasma… Smasher!" she shouted, unleashing a massive beam of magical energy at point-blank range. When the flare of light and its accompanying report had finally faded, the gold-armored alien was lying at the base of a very cracked, battered wall a full twenty feet away, unmoving.

Bardiche shifted slightly, revealing vents that released a blast of steam into the air. Fate sighed with relief in unison with her device, then looked back to Nanoha.

With a moan, Nanoha shakily stood up, and shook her head once or twice to clear it. Chrono was already back on his feet, looking warily up and down the corridor.

"Are you all right, Nanoha? Chrono?" Fate asked worriedly, looking them over.

"I'm fine, just a little dizzy," Nanoha replied brightly, staggering slightly as she took a step in Fate's direction.

"More importantly," Chrono cut in, "Amy, is that all of them?"

Dead silence answered his query. A long ten seconds ticked by without any response, positive or negative.

Chrono's face quickly shaded to a stark white, shock and concern settling in. "Amy!" he yelled out, dashing down the corridor toward the _Arthra_'s combat information center.

"Oh no, Amy!" Nanoha echoed him, only to be brought up short by a mental voice intruding on her concerns.

"_Nanoha, this is Signum,_" the easily-recognizable voice of the Wolkenritter leader echoed through a telepathic link. _"We're pinned down in the sickbay by over a dozen of these… things._"

"We'll have to let Chrono handle Amy," Fate suggested worriedly, having received the message as well. "Hayate and the knights need help too."

Having come to the same conclusion, Nanoha quickly replied, "We'll be right there!"

* * *

Chrono dashed through the _Arthra_ at a breakneck pace, desperately trying to contact Amy all the while. Every call was met with silence, and the distinctive sounds of the invaders' weapons could be heard from up ahead.

"_Chrono, this is Nanoha,"_ a voice intruded on his musings. _"The knights need backup in the sickbay, so we're going to help them… but let us know if you need help, okay?"_

Wrapped up in his concern, he barely even noticed the message. Almost as an afterthought, he sent back something vaguely like agreement and refocused on the scene in front of him.

One more corner separated Chrono from the _Arthra_'s combat information center. Almost unwillingly, he checked his run and peered around the corner cautiously, hoping to get an idea of the tactical situation before charging in headlong.

The corridor he looked into was a blasted ruin. Scorch marks covered the walls and ceiling, especially surrounding the now nonexistent door leading into Amy's typical post. Something sparked in the ceiling above the scorched hole. And worse yet, another group of the shorter aliens surrounded the former door, pouring a near-endless stream of weapons fire into the combat information center.

"That's far enough!" Chrono yelled out, bursting around the corner and leveling his device at the enemies.

"Blaze Cannon," it recited. A blue-white sphere of energy quickly grew in front of Chrono, completely eclipsing his view of the enemies beyond. Before his targets could do anything more than spin around in surprise, a blast of energy tore through the hallway. For a brief instant, chattering screams echoed in the confined space.

Chrono charged forward in the wake of his attack, ignoring the carpet of downed enemies he had just created. Skidding to a stop in front of the blasted hole in the wall, he brought his device around, preparing to open fire on any possible threats within.

Instead, he froze, taking in the scene in an instant. The combat information center was even more of a blasted wreck than the corridor outside, with half-melted metal decorating the walls and floor. Scorch marks covered the computer equipment, and the screen filling the far end of the room was in pieces on the floor.

Another one of the taller aliens stood in the center of the room, next to the destroyed main console. With one hand, he maintained a firm grip on the uniformed girl, Amy, next to him, rendering her attempts to escape somewhat useless.

Amy's eyes widened when she saw Chrono appear in the doorway. "Chrono-"

Savagely, the alien punched out with the weapon in his other hand, knocking her to the ground. She collapsed with a scream, lying stunned on the deck.

"How dare you!" Chrono yelled to him, taking a step forward.

"Don't move!" his adversary rasped, leveling the weapon at Amy again. "One more step, and she dies!"

Chrono froze again, his own device still leveled at the tall, blue-armored form. The moment of hesitation passed quickly. Shifting his aim ever so slightly, he readied a spell.

A thin blue beam of light lanced out of the end of his device, covering the distance between him and his enemy in the blink of an eye. It slammed into and through the alien's weapon, knocking his aim aside and rendering the weapon useless in the same moment.

Growling, the enemy tossed the now-useless weapon aside and simply charged. Chrono tried to redirect the energy bolt he had fired, but the enemy was faster. With a roar, the alien slammed into Chrono, knocking him back out into the hallway. His barrier jacket absorbed some of the hit, but he was still thrown heavily into the corridor's far wall.

He recovered from the shock of the hit just in time to see the menacing form of the seven-foot-tall alien standing over him, swinging down at him with a fist. Frantically, he ducked the blow, rolling away from the attack and regaining his feet in one swift motion.

Chrono had a moment to open fire, unleashing a volley of magical bolts into the alien's shield. Ignoring the attack, the alien dove at Chrono again, even as his shield sparked and then failed entirely under the magical attack.

And this time, Chrono was ready for the charge attack. Swinging his device like a club, he knocked his adversary aside, deflecting the charge into a nearby wall. As the alien slumped to the floor, Chrono's staff-like device came back around, the pointed tip on the end of the handle hovering a few inches over the momentarily stunned enemy.

"Break Impulse," the device intoned dispassionately.

Fixing the alien with a cold gaze, Chrono brought the weapon down. A flash of light accompanied a spray of indigo blood, as the blast of energy tied into the melee strike slammed through the enemy to crack the floor of the corridor beneath him.

Chrono spared a glance for what was left of his opponent before dashing over to where Amy was picking herself up off the deck of the combat information center. "Are you all right, Amy?" he called to her as he bolted through the doorway.

"Yeah, I think…" she replied shakily, grunting in pain as she stood up. "Thanks, Chrono."

"Come on," he suggested, taking her hand. "Let's get you up to the bridge, since it doesn't look like anything in here is working anymore."

She sighed regretfully in assent, looking around at the remains of her usual station. "All right."

As the two of them left the destroyed combat information center, Chrono established a mental line to Nanoha. _"Amy's safe,_" he informed her. _"How are things on your end?_"

* * *

Another volley of pinkish spikes flew out, originating from one of the enemies at the end of the hall. They bounced uselessly off the shimmering white barrier blocking the corridor, falling to the ground and shattering with a series of quick popping sounds.

"Zafira," Signum curtly asked, "will the barrier hold?"

The four members of the Wolkenritter were clustered just outside the door to the sickbay, all in full armor with weapons at the ready. Zafira knelt down in the center, maintaining a pair of barricades on either side of the knights. Beyond those shields, at the ends of the corridor on either side, two entire squads of the alien infantry were clustered, one in each direction. They were using the corner as cover and occasionally popping out to lay down fire.

"It'll take a lot more than this to threaten me," Zafira replied just as curtly.

"Damn it!" Vita cursed, pacing back and forth in the narrow corridor. "Can't we just go smash them all?"

"They're too far away," Shamal warned her. "They'd have plenty of time to shoot you if you tried to charge."

"Fine then!" Vita snarled. "Then we do this!"

Four reddish spheres materialized from nowhere in front of Vita. Zafira dropped the shield in front of Vita for a few seconds, long enough for her to raise Graf Eisen and bring it around in a sweeping strike.

"Schwalbe Fliegen!" the hammer declared, striking the four spheres and sending them flying down the corridor. As Zafira brought the shield back up, the four bullets slammed into the wall at the end of the corridor and exploded.

"How d'you like that?" Vita yelled down the corridor angrily.

As if in response, a thick volley of plasma fire slammed into the shield, and a small, blue-glowing sphere arced through the air. It landed at the base of the shield and sat for a few seconds before exploding in a maelstrom of blue fire. Zafira grunted in surprise, both barriers faltering for a moment before stabilizing.

"Come _on_, Signum, can't you _do_ anything?" Vita demanded.

"And what would you propose?" she calmly bit back. "Falcon? I'd destroy the sickbay if I tried to use that in these tight quarters." As Vita seethed with balked fury, Signum rebuked her, "Calm down, Vita."

"Calm down?" Vita growled. "I'm really tired of just sitting here, getting shot at!"

As if to punctuate Vita's sentence, another grenade exploded against Zafira's barrier. This time, the barrier barely even wavered, but Zafira grunted in something approaching annoyance.

"Nanoha and Fate will be here shortly, and they'll flank these things from behind," Signum pointed out. "We can attack then, once they're distracted."

At that very moment, the two of whom Signum spoke were peering around a corner of their own, examining the non-existent rear guard of one of the enemy squads. One of the taller aliens led a group of six shorter ones, with all of the enemies focused almost blindly on the knights guarding the sickbay.

"According to what Signum said, there's another squad on the other side of the sickbay," Fate whispered. "I'll head over there, so wait until I'm in position."

"Got it, Fate," Nanoha whispered back. Fate dashed off, making her way down a corridor running along the opposite side of the sickbay. Before a half minute had passed, she was in position to strike at the second group, waving at Nanoha to get her attention.

"Ready, Raising Heart?" Nanoha asked softly.

In response, her device shifted into its long-range attack form, an almost cannon-like spear. "Buster mode, stun setting," it recited quietly.

"_Now, Nanoha!"_

She whipped around the corner in one smooth motion and leveled Raising Heart at the taller alien, the apparent leader of the group. "Divine… Buster!" she called out loudly.

As the group of enemies turned in surprise, a searing magenta beam of energy shot forth from Raising Heart, catching the blue-armored leader squarely. Its shield flared into existence as it took the hit, deflecting small rivulets of energy into the wall behind him. However, the shield lasted all of four or five seconds against the torrent of magical energy before failing completely, leaving the alien exposed to the full force of the attack.

The smaller enemies could only stare in shock as their leader was knocked to the ground, rendered unconscious by the sudden ambush. Almost in unison, they looked to his unconscious form, and then to the tiny little girl that had taken him down so effortlessly.

One of them squealed "Leader down!" and dashed around the corner, as if to escape. As the rest followed his retreat, though, they realized that the only other direction they could run was no better.

"Raketen… Hammer!" Vita shrieked, a trail of smoke marking her progress down the corridor. The rocket engine embedded in Graf Eisen flared, propelling Vita toward the lead enemy.

That enemy had a moment to gape before Vita struck, spinning Graf Eisen into an overhand blow at the last moment. The massive blow almost literally pounded the alien into paste, dropping him to the deck in an instant.

Lacking any other option, the remaining enemies opened fire, somewhat uselessly. Vita tore through them with a violent rampage that was both quick and mercilessly effective. By the time Nanoha rounded the corner, all of the smaller aliens were laid out on the deck with terminal hammer wounds.

"What took you so long, Nanoha?" Vita muttered.

"Uh…" she gaped in response, staring wide-eyed at the aftermath of the massacre. "I-I mean, we got here as fast as we could…" she replied a little hesitantly.

"No matter," Vita crowed, smirking slightly. "As I thought, they couldn't stand up to me after all."

As Nanoha was searching for some kind of reply, a mental transmission intruded on her thoughts. _"Amy's safe,_" Chrono's voice echoed from across the _Arthra. "How are things on your end?_"

"_Fine,_" Nanoha replied almost gratefully, thankful for the distraction. Looking down the hallway, she confirmed that Fate and Signum had dealt with the other group of foes. _"We've dealt with the enemies over here._"

After a slight pause, Chrono replied again. _"From what Amy could determine before she was attacked, that should be all of them. Clean things up over there and get to the briefing room; the Admiral wants a word with everyone."_

"_All right, Chrono,"_ Nanoha replied easily.

* * *

"Amy, how's the _Arthra_?" Admiral Lindy asked, a trace of concern in her voice.

The briefing room that the meeting was taking place in was laid out somewhat like a conference room, with a long table dominating the space. Lindy sat at the head, and the senior staff of the _Arthra_ lined one side of the table, including Chrono, Amy, Alex, and Randy. Nanoha, Fate, and Signum took up the opposite side.

"Not good, ma'am," Amy replied wearily. As she spoke, a hologram popped up in the center of the table, displaying the _Arthra_ under normal conditions. The destroyed piece of the ship flashed red on the display, and yellow and orange marks decorated a good portion of what was left. "Before we could retreat, we took a heavy blow from the enemy ship. As you can see, the portside forward prong was completely destroyed. And a multitude of smaller hits broke through our armor and did minor damage to wiring and general integrity throughout the entire outer hull."

Alongside the ship diagram, a list of major systems began scrolling down. As Amy continued, two of the icons shifted from green to red, indicating the systems that had been knocked out. "Thanks to the damage, the Arc-en-Ciel is no longer working, and the links from the reactor to the shields have been destroyed as well, rendering those nonfunctional."

Everyone stared grimly at the readout as Amy finished her report. "Finally, the wiring damage has impeded shipboard communications, leaving 'dead zones' where the intercom system no longer functions, and the destruction of the combat information center means we no longer have effective control over sensors, tracking, or ship-to-ship communication." Four more icons shaded to orange as she spoke.

"The transfer port is still functional?" Admiral Lindy confirmed.

"Yes ma'am," Amy replied quickly. "Though without the combat information center, anything beyond personal teleports will be difficult."

Admiral Lindy looked down at the table for a long moment in contemplation.

"By all rights, I should be ordering us back to headquarters for repairs," she admitted. Her gaze came back up, a fierce determination clearly visible in her eyes. "But those rifts worry me, and that ring worries me." The holographic display changed, to a representation of the ring-shaped world. "Amy?"

Correctly divining the question, Amy replied, "We couldn't get much on it, ma'am; we didn't really have time for active scanning." Several points along the surface of the ring began glowing. "The sensors did pick up several energy responses powerful enough to be Lost Logia, but without the combat information center, our ability to analyze the signatures is minimal."

Lindy sighed. "We don't have a choice then. Chrono!"

"Yes, ma'am!" he responded quickly.

"I need you to go down there and figure out what's going on in more detail," she ordered. "Determine the cause of the dimensional rifts we observed, and ensure that the ring world itself poses no threat to dimensional space."

Nanoha and Fate stared in surprise as Chrono assented with another "Yes, ma'am!"

"Fate…" Lindy turned to her next. "I need you to go with Chrono and back him up, understand?"

"Y-yes," Fate stuttered.

"Nanoha," Lindy began, "I don't really have the right to ask you to-"

"Like hell I'm letting Fate go alone," Nanoha cut her off. "I'm going too."

"Alone?" Chrono asked archly, raising an eyebrow.

Ignoring the question, Signum cut into the conversation. "The _Arthra_'s marines were decimated in the battle, correct?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Amy replied slowly.

"Then we will remain on the _Arthra_ and ensure its safety, should any of the prisoners escape or if it is boarded again," she suggested.

"Thank you," Lindy replied gratefully. Turning back to Chrono, she pointed at a spot on the ring world. "Since I'd rather not send you directly to one of the energy responses we picked up, I think you'd be best served teleporting to this desert plateau here and flying from there to points of interest."

"Very well, Admiral," Chrono replied. "Nanoha, Fate, let's get going." The three stood up and marched out of the room.

"Good luck, and be careful!" Admiral Lindy saw them off.


	3. A Story of Chance Encounters

**Author's Note**: Happy (somewhat belated) New Year, everyone!

... Hmm. Can't seem to think of anything else to say. Well, hopefully you'll enjoy reading this latest chapter.

Also, as a disclaimer, I don't own Nanoha or Halo. As much as I wish I was awesome enough to come up with these things...

* * *

The crack of a sniper rifle echoed across the darkened landscape. Covenant troops spun around in confusion, searching for the source of the sudden attack, as a Grunt fell lifelessly from the Shade turret it had been manning. A trail of smoke lingered in the air for a moment, marking the bullet's path, before dissipating in the light breeze over the rocky, almost barren terrain.

Had the sniper stayed where he was, that trail of smoke would have been a clear indicator of his location, one that the other Shade turret was already taking advantage of. A bright stream of plasma bolts tore through the air in response, melting holes in the intervening rocks to tear through the space where the sniper had stood a few moments before.

The sniper had moved, though, and so the fusillade of energy proved to be worse than useless. SPARTAN-117, more commonly identified by his rank of Master Chief Petty Officer, darted up along the base of the canyon wall, to find another clear angle on the enemies farther up the path. Finding one in short order, he again leveled the sniper rifle, zooming in on the still-active turret.

From the range he was operating at, his green-plated powered armor was all but invisible in the night terrain. There wasn't much to see anyway, as the armor obscured everything that would otherwise be notable about him. It was more than notable enough in its own right, though, as the signature gear of the UNSC's SPARTANs.

To the Covenant troops, though, none of this was nearly as relevant as the damage the Master Chief was doing to their defenses. A second bullet tore through the air, silencing the second Shade turret. A few enterprising Elites and Jackals tried to return fire with their lighter plasma weapons, but their weapons lacked the range to effectively hit the sniper.

As the Master Chief turned his attention to the Elites in the clearing below, he activated his radio. "The turrets are down, move in," he ordered to the squad of Marines waiting behind him. His sniper rifle barked again, and an Elite dropped.

"Watch out," a female voice echoed in his helmet. "It looks like one of those Grunts is making a run for the turret."

"Yeah, Cortana, I see him," the Master Chief replied, shifting his aim. "Thanks for the warning."

"Don't mention it," Cortana replied easily.

In short order, between the Master Chief's sniper rifle and the Marines charging into the clearing, the Covenant troops in the clearing had been disposed of. The Marines warily monitored the surrounding terrain as the Master Chief worked his way down to join them. The massive bulk of a Covenant battlecruiser hung above the entire scene, providing a sobering reminder of the challenge ahead.

"Those suckers weren't so tough!" one of the Marines crowed, punctuating the boast with a bullet to the head of a nearby fallen Elite. "Come on, let's go!"

Practically in unison with the shout, something flashed on the Master Chief's motion tracker: three new dots, at the edge of its range. They glowed a soft yellow, slowly moving toward the Marines from the direction they had come.

"Human contacts behind us?" Cortana asked almost sharply. "Sergeant, any of your Marines missing?"

"No, ma'am, everyone's accounted for," he replied gruffly. "Is there a problem?"

"That would be an _unknown_ contact coming up from behind, then," she sighed dryly. "Chief…"

"On it," he replied. "Hold position here for a moment." Without waiting for a response from the Marines, he crept back along the trail, pulling out an assault rifle and moving from one bit of cover to the next. It took only a few seconds to work his way back to a rock overlooking the trail behind them.

"But why would it register as…" Cortana started to wonder, just as the Master Chief peered out from behind his cover. If not for his long years of military training, he might have reacted a little more obviously to the impossible sight.

"… Human…" Cortana finished her sentence, surprise evident in her tone. "How did a bunch of kids end up _here?_"

Indeed, the three moving up the path were actually human, but certainly much, much younger than any of the Marines accompanying the Chief. In the lead, the oldest of the three was a boy wearing a long black jacket, with lighter grey hems and a spike on each shoulder. That jacket gave way to a pair of armored gauntlets covering his hands, in which he was carrying a black staff.

Following him were two girls that looked even younger than he was, and he couldn't have been been older than fourteen or fifteen. One of those was dressed in a long white dress with blue highlights, white hair ties fluttering in the light breeze through the canyon. She carried a long white staff, topped with a red gem surrounded by a golden half-circle.

The second was dressed in what looked almost like a black swimsuit and a short pink skirt, topped with a long black cape. Her long blond hair was held in place by a pair of black ties, but the only actual armor-like pieces were the guards on her gloves and her shoes. She carried the most obvious weapon, a black axe with a yellow gem where the blade met the handle.

The three proceeded in apparent silence, following the exact same path that the Marines had not ten minutes ago. "Think they're following us intentionally?" the Master Chief asked Cortana.

"Well," she mused, "on one hand, they're not paying enough attention to be following a trail, and they don't look like they're ready for trouble, which they would be if they were following a potential enemy. On the other, I don't see how they don't know about us, unless they somehow managed to not notice the Pelican."

The Master Chief considered that for a moment. Then, he began to walk out from behind the rock.

"What are you doing?" Cortana inquired calmly.

"If they're hostile, the mission's in trouble already," the Chief reasoned. "We might as well find out who these three are and what they're doing here now, as quickly as possible."

Cortana merely sighed. "Just make it quick."

* * *

Everyone froze as the Master Chief stepped out from behind cover, standing almost directly in the path of Chrono, Fate, and Nanoha.

"What… _is_ that?" Nanoha asked in amazement. The person, if it was a person, that had interrupted their forward progress was nearly twice as tall as she was, covered head to toe in a green-plated armor of some kind. An orange-tinted visor on the helmet blocked any view of the person's face, and a rifle rested in the figure's grip, pointed down at the ground.

"I should be asking the same question," a voice issued out from the armored figure, nearly causing her to jump in surprise. "What are you three doing here?"

Chrono merely sighed and raised a hand. The Master Chief twitched slightly, as if to bring the rifle to bear, but managed to hold back the instinctual reaction.

"Time-Space Administration Bureau, Enforcer Chrono Harlaown," Chrono recited sharply. In front of his raised hand, a field of energy flashed into existence, displaying something that looked remarkably like an ID card.

Instantly, Cortana's voice echoed in the Master Chief's ears. "Be _very_ careful, Chief. I can't credit this 'Time-Space Administration Bureau' with all that much common sense, for blundering into the middle of a war… but their ship took out four Covenant battlecruisers in little more than an instant."

"Perfect combination," the Chief responded dryly. "Power, and no clue how to use it."

None of that exchange was audible to Chrono, who continued, "I have been ordered to investigate this ring world and the forces present here for potential threats to dimensional space, including any and all Lost Logia."

"Lost… Logia?" Cortana echoed.

Ignoring Cortana's confusion for the moment, the Chief merely asked somewhat skeptically, "And what does this have to do with me?"

"You can start by identifying yourself and stating your intentions here," Chrono demanded.

"Cheeky little brat, isn't he?" Cortana commented sarcastically.

"Master Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-117, United Nations Space Command Navy," the Chief recited with the barest minimum of patience. "At the moment, we're in the middle of a rescue mission that is somewhat time critical. So if you'll excuse me…"

He began to turn away, hoping that the conversation could be ended there. As he took a step back toward the squad of Marines, though, another voice interrupted that plan.

"Um… Mr. Spartan…"

The Master Chief glanced over his shoulder to see that Nanoha had taken a step forward, to stand next to Chrono. She continued a little timidly, "Who are you rescuing?"

"Captain Keyes," he responded shortly, turning away again. He began to jog forward, making up for lost time in the only way he could.

"All right, Marines," Cortana ordered over the comm, "sorry for the delay, get ready to move- Chief!"

The reason for the shout was immediately apparent: the three kids behind him, now only dots on the Motion Tracker again, had started to follow him at a much more rapid clip. He spun around rapidly, leveling the assault rifle he was carrying as he did so.

A very surprised Nanoha, now with a gun pointed directly at her, came to a skidding halt on the ground, throwing up a plume of dirt as her shoes slid over the rough terrain. "Wait-!" she yelled out.

"Nanoha!" Fate called out desperately, dashing up behind and raising Bardiche.

"Defenser," it intoned. A yellow sphere of energy flashed into existence around Nanoha and Fate as the two came to a stop a few feet away from the Master Chief.

"We just want to help!" Nanoha hurriedly gasped out, still apparently a little shocked. "That's all!"

Dead silence hung over the darkened canyon. Fate and Nanoha stared in surprise at the Master Chief's weapon, still pointed directly at their shield, while the Master Chief stared back at the two girls with no small amount of his own surprise.

"How did they _do_ that?" Cortana asked, somewhat uselessly considering her only audience had no better idea. "Is there a shield generator built into that axe?"

Chrono came up behind Nanoha and Fate a little more slowly, keeping the shield in between himself and the Master Chief. "If we come with you and help you rescue your Captain, will you let us talk to him about your mission here?" he asked the Chief simply.

He sighed in exasperation and lowered the rifle again. "You can't possibly be serious. This is a _war_ you're talking about here. You don't just 'help' with that on a whim, little girl."

Nanoha looked down, shading her eyes from the Master Chief's view, as he continued, "My squad and I don't have the time or the attention to babysit three kids who don't know what they're-"

"You won't have to, I promise," Nanoha shot back, bringing her head back up and fixing the Chief with a surprisingly open gaze. Her eyes almost burned with a simple, honest conviction as she continued, "You won't have to babysit me, or Fate, or Chrono. We can protect ourselves just fine."

The Master Chief met that gaze coldly, helmet turning slightly to fix directly on Nanoha. The blank visor met Nanoha's fiery gaze for a moment before the Chief sighed slightly in exasperation. "Fine, just stay behind me."

As he turned around, Cortana's voice cut in again. "You're seriously going to bring them with us?"

"At least this way, we can keep an eye on them," he replied, moving out again. Behind him, Nanoha, Fate, and Chrono followed.

* * *

Bullets pinged off the rock walls of the latest narrow canyon that the rescue force fought its way through. The Covenant battlecruiser was almost directly above, and the shimmering field of its gravity lift was clearly visible up ahead.

Chrono sighed with something approaching frustration as the last of the Covenant troops in the canyon fell, a few moments before he got a clear line on the combat. "If I didn't know better, I'd say they were intentionally keeping us out of the way."

"I think that's exactly what they're doing," Fate concurred quietly. "If they've never heard of the Bureau before, you can't expect them to just welcome you with open arms, Chrono."

"Hey, he's moving again!" Nanoha warned them, looking ahead to where the Master Chief was leading the charge into what looked like a clearing of some kind. Without hesitating, the three moved in as well, carried along in a tide of screaming Marines.

The clearing that they entered instantly descended into chaos. A depression in the center of the clearing was home to a large metal platform, at which the glowing field of the gravity lift touched ground. Several Shade turrets had already opened fire on the intruders from their positions around the perimeter of the depression, and the scattered Covenant troops around the clearing began firing as well.

Enthusiastically, the Marines returned fire, and a hail of bullets joined the torrent of plasma bolts filling the air. A precise shot from the Master Chief's sniper rifle took out one of the Shade gunners in an instant, as the rest of the Marines hurriedly took cover against the incoming heavy weapons fire.

The Chief made a dash for the turret, settling into its chair and bringing the barrel around. Just as he was about to open fire on one of the other turrets, though, a shout from near the entry to the clearing cut him off.

"Stinger Snipe!" Chrono yelled, holding out his staff. A spark of blue light shot out and tore around the perimeter of the clearing in little more than an instant. Before the Master Chief had the chance to blink, the line of light had cut through the remaining gunners, deactivating every remaining Shade.

"What was _that_?" Cortana asked in surprise.

"Hell if I know," the Chief replied, turning his attention to the remaining Covenant troops. As one after the other fell, he began to hope that the clearing could be easily taken.

"Incoming Covenant dropship!" Cortana warned him, promptly shattering that hope. The bluish-purple, horseshoe-shaped craft flew in low over the clearing, its turret spraying down fire onto the Marines below. It landed nose-on to the Chief's turret, cannon keeping up the suppresing fire as another group of Covenant troops poured out of its bays.

Then, a whirling halo of yellow energy tore in, slamming into the dropship's turret and slicing it cleanly in half. The Master Chief glanced with surprise over toward the Marines, toward the origin of the attack. Fate hovered a foot or two off the ground, Bardiche in its scythe form. In between her sudden attack, the Master Chief's Shade turret, and the now free to respond Marines, the dropship's load of troops was cut down in short order.

Just as the Master Chief was about to jump out of the turret, though, someone shouted "More of them!" over the squad frequency. He looked up to where another dozen or more forms were hovering down from the ship above.

Some corner of his mind registered the pair of Hunters in the group an instant before he held down the Shade's trigger and began filling the gravity lift's pad with plasma fire. Elites and Jackals fell easily, but the Hunter that he zeroed in on merely raised its shield, blocking the torrent of energy. Its own fuel rod gun glowed green as it responded to the Master Chief's attack.

A massive explosion eclipsed the turret, causing the Chief's shields to flare, overload, and fail. An insistent beeping alerted him to the issue, just as the other Hunter's fuel rod gun fired.

Time seemed to slow for a moment. The green mass of energy traced its slow arc toward the Master Chief's turret, sparking as it flew. The Chief made to jump away from the turret, but had barely even begun to stand up when something white shot in from the side.

Nanoha stood defiantly in front of the oncoming energy bolt, her weapon held up before her. "Raising Heart!" she called.

"Wide Area Protection," it responded. There was a flash of light, as the oncoming attack slammed into an invisible barrier directly in front of Nanoha. A hexagonal field of pink light flashed outward, illuminating the barrier for a brief moment as it held back the explosion.

Lacking any time to contemplate what had just happened, the Master Chief merely sat back down in the turret as his shields began to recharge. Shifting his aim slightly, he attempted again to take down one of the Hunters on the gravity lift's pad, just as the girl standing beside the turret leveled Raising Heart and fired her own blast of energy at the other Hunter.

The two aliens took cover behind their shields, hiding from the heavy attack. Amazingly, neither one faltered, the massive shields successfully rejecting both the Shade turret's plasma bolts and the beam of energy from Nanoha.

"You're kidding me!" Nanoha yelled as her attack faded, revealing the total lack of damage.

"If we can just get something past their armor…" the Chief cursed.

Suddenly, a black-and-yellow blur tore across the battlefield. Moving almost too fast to track, it bolted into the gravity lift's field and darted past the Hunters' vulnerable backsides. As both of them suddenly slumped to the ground, Fate finally came to a stop, standing over the two enemies. Her cape had disappeared, and small yellow wings extended from her wrists and ankles.

"Barrier Jacket, Sonic Form!" Bardiche crowed, as if to celebrate the minor victory. It shifted back into its axe-like Assault Form with a clank as Fate sighed and looked up toward Nanoha and the Master Chief.

"Thanks for keeping them occupied, Nanoha!" she called up.

Nanoha merely smiled. "Well, it wasn't all me!" She looked back to where the Chief was clambering out of the Shade's control chair.

As the Chief hit the ground next to Nanoha, he grunted, "Thanks." Without waiting for a reply, he moved toward the lift, linking up again with the surviving Marines. They scrambled to establish a perimeter as Cortana hit the airwaves, calling for additional support.

When she was finished with that call, she turned her attention back to the Chief. "So, those three can fight after all," she observed mildly.

"Yeah," the Chief replied, sparing a glance for the running lights of the incoming Pelican. "I was going to suggest that Echo 419 extract them… but now I think we could use a little more backup on this one."

"When do I get to ask them about those weapons they're using?" Cortana reminded him.

"I'm sure there will be plenty of time to chat, _after_ we get Captain Keyes back to Alpha Base," the Chief suggested. Waving the freshly arrived reinforcements forward, he stepped onto the gravity lift's pad, leading the squad of Marines and three Bureau mages into the heart of the Covenant battlecruiser above.


	4. The Truth and Reconciliation

**Author's Note:** Sorry it's been so long! School starting up again and all of that attendant chaos played havoc with the free time I had for writing. Well, and this is the longest chapter yet, but not by much, so that's not really an excuse...

Thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing this, and I hope you all enjoy this next chapter! Let me know what you think!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Nanoha or Halo.

* * *

The quiet was almost tangible in the loading bay of the Covenant battlecruiser. Stacks of bluish-purple boxes were scattered everywhere, leaving plenty of hiding places for enemies. And yet, as the Marines scattered outward into the bay, no immediate threat presented itself.

The Master Chief scanned the room warily. "Cortana, which way?" he asked.

"The signal from the Captain's CNI is still weak, but…" she began, as the Master Chief's eyes swept across the room again. As they passed by one of the doors along the perimeter, she continued, "That door should take us in the general direction we want."

Taking a step forward, the Chief gestured for the Marines to fall in behind. Chrono slid into position on the Chief's right flank, and Nanoha did the same on his left after a quick mental prompting from Chrono. Fate fell in behind them, leaving the Marines to cover the rear.

Cautiously, the phalanx approached the chosen door. No Covenant troops jumped out of hiding, and the only contacts on the Chief's motion tracker were faint blurs, almost out of range.

"Where is ever-" one of the Marines started to whisper.

As if cued by the voice, a side door off to the left slid open with a soft hum. A blue-armored Elite took one step through the door before noticing the crowd of enemies present in the loading bay.

Nanoha, as the guard on the left flank and the first one to notice the enemy, responded swiftly and effectively. Before the Elite had even noticed the invaders, Raising Heart was already preparing a response. "Axel Shooter," it intoned.

"Shoot!" Nanoha called out loudly, leveling Raising Heart at the Elite just as it realized what it had walked in on. A volley of pink bolts of energy shot out from Raising Heart, curving and twisting to land a series of hits across the Elite's shields.

Twelve direct hits later, the Elite hit the deck with a crash, overwhelmed by the barrage. However, as the last echoes of Nanoha's shout faded off the walls, three other doors in the loading bay slid open, discharging a massive wave of Covenant troops.

"Move, move, move!" the Master Chief yelled, waving the Marines forward as he tossed a grenade behind them toward the oncoming enemies. Covenant troops scattered for cover as the fragmentation grenade clanked into their midst.

The Marines charged forward for the door, leaving the Chief to deal with the crowd of enemies now filling the loading bay. Just as the grenade exploded, the Chief took his assault rifle and sprayed fire across the oncoming enemies, making for the nearest cover he could find. Several Grunts dropped, and an Elite's shield flared as the rifle fire bounced off it.

An answering wave of plasma fire barely missed the Chief's retreating form as he took cover behind a pile of boxes. He put his back to the pile, began to reload his rifle, and then nearly did a double take to find that Nanoha and Fate had followed him.

"What happened to 'move'?" he demanded softly.

"We'll help you hold them off," Fate replied quietly. "Chrono can handle the advance by himself." As she finished speaking, the door that Chrono and the squad of marines had taken out of the bay slid closed. A guttural-sounding alien yell echoed through the room.

"Um, Fate," Nanoha whispered urgently from near the edge of their hiding place. "They're not coming after us."

The Chief leaned over and out of cover, looking to confirm that fact for himself. With a Jackal out in the open a short distance away, he fired off a burst from his assault rifle. As he fired, though, he was forced to duck back behind the pile of crates as an answering volley came back from the edges of every possible piece of cover in his field of vision.

"A standoff," he cursed. "Their commander's playing it safe."

"What do we do?" Nanoha asked worriedly.

"My armor can take a few hits, so I'll distract them, and-"

Fate interrupted the plan with an alternative suggestion. "Is their commander going to expect one of us coming over the top?

The Chief looked up, at the pile of boxes behind him. A quick glance at the large, smooth metal crates and the haphazard nature of the pile was all it took. "We'd make so much noise in climbing up there that he'd have to be deaf not to-"

He fell silent in shock as Fate silently lifted up off the ground, apparently for no reason at all. She hovered up to the highest crate in the pile, hiding behind it as she offered a smile to the green-armored form below.

"Okay, that?" Cortana cut in. "_That_ is impossible."

Shaking his head as if to clear it, the Chief inched his way over to one edge of the pile, gesturing for Nanoha to do the same on the other side. "Questions later," he reminded Cortana privately, before waving Fate forward.

The enemies filling the rest of the loading bay were indeed prepared for an assault around the corners of the pile. However, there was a long moment of surprised shock when a black-garbed, blond-haired girl seemingly appeared out of nowhere above it.

That moment was all Fate needed. "Plasma Lancer… Fire!" she commanded, releasing eight bolts of energy onto the unprepared enemies below. Several Grunts and Jackals fell victim to the attack, but the one bolt aimed for an Elite merely spattered off its shield.

As every gun in the room traversed upward to combat this new threat, though, the Master Chief burst around his corner of the pile, bursts of fire spraying from his rifle. The distracted Covenant troops found themselves unable to respond nearly fast enough to the Chief's charge, and yet more of the line troops fell.

The Chief ducked behind another crate to reload his rifle. As he did so, Cortana worriedly pointed out, "Chief, there are still plenty of Elites-"

Her warning was interrupted by a shout from across the room. Nanoha was still standing behind the original pile of boxes, pointing her staff at the pile. A sphere of pinkish energy vibrated in front of her.

"Divine… Buster!" she called out.

That sphere resolved itself into a devastating beam of light. The attack tore entirely through the pile in front of Nanoha, zeroing in on one of the larger groups of enemies. As it hit the crate covering that group, the weakened beam simply produced an explosion, pieces of crate flying in every direction. The pile of crates in front of Nanoha collapsed in the same moment.

The Master Chief tore out of cover again, taking advantage of the havoc to further reduce the enemy numbers. Most of Nanoha's attack had seemingly been expended on the crate covering the enemies, but a glance at the remains of that crate revealed a scattering of small blue objects, lying scattered at the feet of the stunned enemies.

"Get down!" the Chief yelled reflexively as he tossed another grenade of his own. Fate shot downward, taking refuge with Nanoha behind a large magic circle the latter girl had summoned, as the fragmentation grenade exploded and set off the mass of plasma grenades.

A roiling storm of blue fire filled the room. The Chief dove behind cover again as his shields died instantly before the wave of heat. Nanoha grunted in surprise as the blast wave slammed into her shield, straining to hold the shield intact.

Once the dust had settled, the Chief peered back out into the remains of the loading bay. A massive black scar filled the center of the room, the result of several plasma grenades going off in rapid succession. The two girls he had fought with stood at the edge of the ring of devastation, breathing a little heavily but apparently uninjured. Of the enemies, very little remained.

"All right," the Chief prompted, heading for the same exit that the Marines had taken earlier. "Let's get moving before more of them arrive." As Nanoha and Fate silently fell in behind him, he continued over his radio, "Marines, what's your status?"

Just as they reached the door, one of the Marines responded, "Chief, we're pinned down in the corridor just beyond that door-"

The door slid open silently, a moment before an alien roar echoed through the hallway beyond. Metal rang on metal as a massive form, a Hunter, dropped to the deck.

The Marines were clustered at the nearer end of the slightly sloping hall, staring down to where the Hunter had just collapsed. Chrono leaned on his device, clutching his side in apparent pain, just beyond that. A second unmoving Hunter was lying on the deck farther down the hall.

"Chrono!" Fate called, concern apparent in her voice as she dashed out to join him. Nanoha followed almost as quickly.

The Chief looked to the Marines, making a quick headcount. "What happened?" he asked evenly.

"Those Hunters hit us right after the door closed," the squad's sergeant replied. "I thought we were toast, without any cover… But that kid somehow managed to take them down!"

Nodding, the Chief gestured the squad forward. The conversation between Nanoha, Fate, and Chrono came to a halt as the Marines walked up.

"You able to keep going?" the Chief asked Chrono neutrally.

"I'm just fine," Chrono shot back confidently, standing up straight with only a slight wince.

"All right then, let's go," the Chief ordered. "The Captain's waiting for us, and we can't afford to stand around."

* * *

As yet another corner presented a squad of Grunts, the Chief sighed heavily. Without even thinking about it, he brought his assault rifle around and dropped three of them with one sustained burst of fire. A spark of blue light tore past him and slammed into the remaining enemies, ending the threat before even one of them managed to return fire.

Glancing back, he took stock of the squad behind him. While Nanoha and Fate didn't look all that tired, Chrono was lowering his staff, breathing heavily. He used his staff as a crutch for the briefest moment before straightening up again.

None of the Marines looked to be any better off. The group was smaller than it had been at first, several of the Marines having been taken down by enemy fire, and the ones that remained standing were being run into the ground. With one smaller vehicle bay and three levels of a massive hangar behind them, it came as little surprise that ammunition and spirit were starting to flag.

"Cortana, are we close?" he asked.

"The Captain's signal has been getting stronger and stronger," she replied. "He can't be much farther away. Take the next left."

Turning left at the next intersection put the Chief and his squad in front of a small door, which slid open as the Chief approached it. The room beyond, while not quite as large and cavernous as the hangar behind them, was certainly a very large room. It was dominated by a raised platform in the center, surrounded by a trench ringing the platform. Screens filled the room, which clearly served as a bridge of some kind.

Of course, the most obvious indicator of that was the gold-armored Elite commander on the raised platform, or the numerous lesser Elites and Grunts filling the room. All of whom looked quite pleased at the Master Chief's intrusion.

"You failed to mention that the next left led to the bridge!" the Chief rebuked Cortana as he charged forward, assault rifle spraying the nearest Elite with bullets. As that Elite crumpled and fell, Marines poured into the bridge behind him, beginning the battle in earnest.

With a distinct lack of cover in the room, the fight was short and violent. The Chief hurriedly reloaded his assault rifle, then unloaded it on another Elite almost as quickly. Fate blurred into the room, her scythe flashing as it downed one Grunt after another.

Chrono rushed to cover the Marines as some of the enemy return fire began tracking in their direction. He looked up at the raised platform to where the gold-armored Elite was gesturing and yelling at the alien soldiers below.

"We need to do something about that commander!" he called out to no one in particular.

Almost before he had finished speaking, however, some of the energy bolts in another one of Nanoha's attack patterns had redirected themselves. The Elite commander dove to the side, adeptly dodging the first two shots, but a third and a fourth hit him directly. As the commander stood back up, a volley of bullets ended what was left of his shield.

Then the first two bolts from Nanoha's attack circled back around. The gold-armored Elite never even saw the strike coming. The attack hit him on the back of the head, causing him to stumble forward and fall into the trench surrounding the raised platform.

"Nice shot!" one of the Marines yelled as they turned their attention to the lesser Elites in the room. Thanks to the Chief, they found few of those left standing, and in the space of a few seconds the battle came to an end. Silence fell over the bridge as the Marines swept through the room, making sure that there were no more threats present.

"Hold position here," the Chief ordered to the Marines. "I'll be right back with the Captain."

"Fate," Chrono added a moment later, "you should stay here and watch our backs too."

"All right, Chrono," Fate replied easily. "Be careful."

"You too, Fate!" Nanoha called back as she and Chrono rushed after the Master Chief.

Their path took them out of the bridge and through yet another maze of corridors. Nanoha and Chrono took flight to keep up with the Chief, who had started moving at a full run. The first few doors they passed refused to open, but before long they reached one that would.

"No one here…?" Nanoha asked quietly, surveying the cells lining each wall of the room.

"Nope," the Chief cursed, frustration evident in his tone. "Cortana!"

"We should be right on top of him," the AI reassured him. "His signal hasn't gotten any weaker."

"There's another active door over here!" Chrono called out from out in the hallway. The portal irised open when he took another step forward, and a plasma bolt lashed out, skimming past Chrono's head and spattering against the far wall of the corridor.

The Chief charged out into the corridor, catching up to Chrono in a matter of moments. Simultaneously, the two returned fire, Chrono's precise shot curving through two of the Grunts on the left side of the room while the Chief's assault rifle swept across three more on the right.

Another plasma bolt shot out in reply, bouncing off the Chief's shields. Reflexively, Chrono raised his own defenses as the Chief ducked behind a nearby pillar. The magical shield of force hovering in the air in front of Chrono absorbed another two shots that seemed to have originated from empty air.

Nanoha chose that moment to run up to Chrono's side. She leveled Raising Heart in the general direction of the incoming plasma fire.

"Restrict Lock," it intoned calmly. Bands of pink energy materialized out of thin air, locking themselves around a shimmering patch of air.

With the target thus locked in place and clearly marked, the Chief had no reason to hesitate. The assault rifle sprayed a volley of bullets that nearly tore the unshielded stealth Elite in half. The Elite's body hit the deck with a dull thud as Nanoha's locking spell faded.

"Good to see you, Chief!" a voice called out from one of the cells in the room. The Marines imprisoned in the room eagerly crowded up against the forcefields holding them in, watching as the Chief went over to the room's control terminal. With Cortana's help, it was a simple matter for the Chief to lower the fields, allowing the Marines within to escape.

One of the prisoners, however, walked over to confront the Chief, scooping up one of the discarded weapons on the floor as he did so. "Coming here was reckless, Chief," he rebuked, face stern. It quickly broke into a slight smile, however, as he continued, "Thanks."

"Any time, sir," the Chief quickly responded.

Turning to Nanoha and Chrono, the man continued, "And who are these two?"

Chrono took a single step forward, raising his hand and displaying his ID as he had to the Master Chief before. "Enforcer Chrono Harlaown, Time-Space Administration Bureau," he replied.

"Nanoha Takamachi," Nanoha chimed in. "Nice to meet you!"

One eyebrow went up. "So you're from that Bureau ship that showed up earlier…" Before either of them could respond, he continued with his own introduction. "Captain Jacob Keyes, United Nations Space Command."

Captain Keyes stood taller than either Nanoha or Chrono by a fair margin, looking down on the two with an icy, blue-grayish stare. His uniform was somewhat rumpled and dirty thanks to his time in captivity, but a panel of ribbons and a silvery eagle remained attached to it over his left breast.

"We'll have to save the detailed conversation for later, though," Keyes apologized, turning to the Chief again. "Chief, we have another problem. I overheard the guards talking about this ring world, which they call Halo."

Cortana cut in, projecting her voice through the Chief's speakers. "If what I'm picking up on the Covenant battle net is true, then they believe that Halo is some kind of weapon…"

Chrono interrupted with a heavy sigh. "Lost Logia are always some kind of weapon, aren't they?" he muttered sarcastically. Ignoring the stares he received in response, he turned away slightly, muttering to Nanoha, "I'm going to let the Admiral know about this."

"At any rate, Chief," Keyes continued, dismissing the interruption, "I'll need you and Cortana to find Halo's control room, _before_ the Covenant can."

Chrono chose that moment to interrupt again, with a soft, concerned, "What in the…?"

"Chrono, what's wrong?" Nanoha asked him.

"I can't… the _Arthra_'s not within my range for communication," Chrono replied worriedly.

"What?" Nanoha exclaimed in surprise. "Did something happen to the _Arthra_?"

"I don't know!" Chrono shot back. "For them to disappear on us without the slightest bit of warning… I mean, her communications system was damaged, but I didn't think it was that far gone, and surely the Admiral would have gotten in touch personally if something else had gone wrong…"

The Marines, the Chief, and Captain Keyes looked askance at Chrono and Nanoha as the two of them fretted over the fate of their ship. Just as Keyes opened his mouth to interrupt their discussion, however, Nanoha suddenly looked up as if listening to something. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Fate's under attack!" she reported urgently.

The implications of that were not lost on the Chief. "Captain, the rest of my squad-" the Chief began.

"Marines, move out!" Keyes ordered, figuring out the situation quickly enough. Needing no further encouragement, the Chief left the brig at a run, with Nanoha, Chrono, Captain Keyes, and the Marines close behind.

* * *

A scream echoed through the Covenant cruiser's bridge. One of the Marines near the door dropped, the glowing tips of a Covenant energy sword having practically sprouted from his chest. The menacing blade hung in the air, apparently being carried by no one at all. A strange distortion, almost like a heat haze, crawled through the air as the blade advanced on another one of the Marines.

It was intercepted by a flash of golden-yellow light, as Fate flew across the room to cut off the advancing enemy. Fate's scythe blade came down and across the sword, knocking it aside with a spray of sparks. Before the surprised Elite could react to this new enemy's sudden appearance, the scythe came back around for a second and then a third blow, Bardiche carving broad lines through the space where the sword-wielding foe was likely to be.

Fate's instincts proved to be spot-on, as the second of her strikes disabled the Elite's stealth generator. In front of her and the entire squad of Marines, the sword-wielding Elite faded into view as it staggered back a step, stunned by the speed with which Fate had attacked. That stun proved to be fatal, as three of the surrounding Marines opened up with their assault rifles on the unshielded foe.

As a storm of bullets cut him down, Fate hurriedly glanced around, taking stock of the situation. The blue glow of another sword bounced along near one of the walls of the bridge, advancing on an unsuspecting Marine. To make matters worse, several Grunts appeared in the now unguarded doorway to the bridge, opening fire with their plasma pistols.

"Go deal with the Elite!" one of the Marines encouraged her. "We'll take the-" His voice scaled up into a scream as a plasma bolt took him in the arm. As his gun clattered to the deck, the vastly-reduced squad of Marines began to congregate in front of the ramp to the bridge platform, opening fire on the Grunts piling up at the door.

"_We're under attack over here!"_ Fate hurriedly warned Nanoha. _"It doesn't look good!" _Lacking cover, the Marines were only barely holding off the Grunts trying to storm into the bridge, and the sword-wielding stealth Elite was picking them off one by one as they tried to gather.

Coming to a decision, Fate held her device out in front of her. "Bardiche!" she called out decisively.

"Zanbar Form," it replied. It shifted from its usual axe-like form into something almost resembling a trident, shorter than any of its other modes. After a moment's pause, though, a brilliant yellow blade of energy extended from what was now clearly a hilt, forming a broad sword almost half as tall as Fate was.

Leaping forward, she shot towards the remaining stealth Elite and swung the sword around, attacking with her usual speed despite the large, heavy appearance of her weapon. Her attack slammed into the hovering Covenant sword, almost knocking it entirely out of its owner's hand with the force of the blow.

However, as Fate struck again with her blade, trying to end the battle quickly, the distortion in front of her shifted. The Covenant energy sword dipped slightly as its owner ducked, taking advantage of his stealth to evade what could have otherwise been a finishing blow.

As the Elite regained his balance, he struck out with his own sword, forcing Fate onto the defensive. Blue and yellow sparks flew as the two blades clashed, neither side able to score a decisive hit.

The stealth Elite disengaged and began to move, sword hovering in a ready position as it traced the start of a circle around Fate. Wary of the consequences of a missed strike, Fate merely watched, turning herself to keep the blade within view.

The Marines' battle, however, was not going nearly as well. As the sword-wielding Elite put his back to the rest of the battle, Fate gasped to see how few of them were left standing. A volley of pinkish spikes went flying into the group of Marines in the next instant. Another yell accompanied a shiver in the air and the restrained crack of a small explosion.

In the next instant, the enemy blade thrusted forward, aiming for Fate's midsection. Fate was forced into retreat as she parried first one strike, then the next, backing along the edge of a pit surrounding the central bridge platform. She spared a quick glance to the left, to the small pit next to her, before refocusing on the enemy's aggressive attack. Her blade knocked another thrust aside as she shifted direction and charged forward, circling around the enemy Elite in the blink of an eye.

The hovering sword simply shot forward, as if its owner had dove into the space that Fate had vacated in a hurry. Fate's strike hit empty air again, despite the speed of her attack. In the next moment, the sword dove into the small pit.

Given an excuse, Fate closely examined the pit surrounding the central bridge platform. It resembled a trench more than a pit, running around the entire raised platform in the center of the bridge, and was only a few feet deep. The sword was already moving along the trench, back towards the battle in the open area of the bridge.

As Fate readied her own blade for a strike, though, the enemy weapon suddenly shot up toward her face. She was forced to jerk back to avoid taking the blow, scrambling back a foot or two. When she recovered, the position from barely a few seconds ago had reasserted itself, with the enemy stealth Elite in between her and the struggling Marines.

With one major difference. Suddenly, a new wave of plasma fire came pouring into the fight from the direction of the brig, accompanied by the bark of an assault rifle. The Covenant troops piling into the bridge were blindsided, with most of them going down instantly under the sudden attack. And as if the battle had not already effectively ended, a combination of pink and blue bolts of energy twisted through the melee, finishing off most of the rest of the Covenant foes.

Smiling grimly, Fate attacked, forcing the Elite onto the defensive this time. Faintly, she heard someone yell "Hold fire, if you're not careful you'll hit her!" as the surviving Marines noticed the continuing fight. They began to cautiously advance toward the combatants, weapons held out threateningly.

That was when one of the pink energy bolts shot in and bounced off the sword, knocking it out of line. Fate didn't hesitate for a second. Bardiche shot in, slamming into the stealthed Elite almost before he realized what had hit his energy sword.

As the Elite collapsed to the deck, stealth field fading, Fate straightened up and raised Bardiche. It shifted back to its normal form, the yellow blade vanishing into thin air as the device's main body changed back into an axe.

She sighed heavily and smiled, returning Nanoha's gaze. The Marines stared at her with expressions varying from surprise to admiration as Nanoha smiled back in relief.

That look quickly shifted to shock and surprise. "Fate!" she yelled warningly, suddenly leveling Raising Heart at her friend. A number of the Marines in front were bringing their weapons back up as well.

The apparent warning was clear enough. Fate twisted to the side without even looking around, trying to dive out of the way of whatever her allies had seen behind her.

There was a brief pause, as if the world was waiting for something. But just as Nanoha yelled "Shoot", unleashing another volley of energy bolts in Fate's general direction, her side lit up with pain. She had a moment to contemplate the burning heat that tore into her before she blacked out.

* * *

Nanoha screamed wordlessly as the gold-armored Elite that had suddenly jumped up behind Fate buried an energy sword in her friend's right side, just under the shoulder. Time seemed to slow as Fate collapsed forward. Before she had even had time to hit the ground, Nanoha's counterattack had taken out the enemy Elite commander in turn, and the blue-glowing sword vanished as its owner fell alongside Fate.

"Fate!" she screamed again, desperately. Before she even registered the movement, she was kneeling down beside Fate, calling her friend's name over and over again. Her hands grasped Fate's shoulders, and she shook her friend gently as if she just needed to be woken up.

The Master Chief reached down and rested a hand on Nanoha's shoulder. One of the other Marines ran up, pulling out a first aid kit, as the Chief pried Nanoha off of Fate.

"Let the medic work," he ordered calmly as Nanoha uselessly fought back against his grip. "We'll do what we can for her." Looking over Nanoha to the Marine, he continued, "Well?"

"Not good, Chief," the Marine replied without even looking up. "She won't die in the next ten minutes, but she needs more attention than I can give her here and now."

The Chief turned around and scanned the room until his eyes fell on Chrono, standing next to Captain Keyes as if to guard him. Chrono met the Chief's gaze with a slow shake of his head. "I still can't establish contact with the _Arthra_," he explained. His face took on a haunted cast as he continued, "Believe me, if I could find them…"

"Then we're taking her back to Alpha Base with us," the Chief concluded.

"Fate'll be all right then, right?" Nanoha suddenly burst out desperately, the Chief's order having finally broken through her shock. "She's not dead?"

The Chief ignored her, momentarily distracted by a conversation with Cortana. One of the other Marines nearby, however, suddenly asked, "And what about that gold bastard, huh? I thought you took him out, girl! How'd he get back up?"

"I…" Nanoha stuttered, taken by surprise. "I mean… I… I knocked him out…"

"Knocked him out? What the hell do you mean?" the Marine pressured her.

"Hey!" Chrono cut in. "Lay off-"

As Chrono started speaking, though, Raising Heart intervened as well. "I am currently set to a stunning attack mode that will not cause permanent injury," it informed the crowd. Chrono sighed heavily as every Marine within hearing froze in shock.

"Well," Cortana muttered to the Master Chief privately, in the silence that followed. "That's interesting."

Slowly, the Chief walked over to the fallen Elite commander and knelt down, confirming for himself that the enemy was still breathing. Deliberately, he pulled out his pistol and took aim.

Nanoha stared at the Chief, eyes wide in horrified shock. His visor met that gaze evenly, without flinching, as he pulled the trigger. The Elite jerked slightly, then ceased moving entirely, as the crack echoed through the bridge.

"Don't get me wrong, I appreciate you wanting to help," the Master Chief coldly began. "But as I told you before, this is a war, not some school project. Make careless little mistakes in a war zone, like choosing the wrong weapon for the job, and it's not just you that will suffer for it."

Tears began to crawl down Nanoha's face. "I… I didn't…" she sobbed.

"Of course you didn't _intend_ for this to happen," the Chief cut her off. "No one ever does."

As Nanoha struggled to bring herself under control, Captain Keyes stepped forward and cut off the rebuke. "Chief, we don't have time for this now. Where's our ride?"

Crisply, Cortana came back, "Air support is cut off, Captain."

"Then we won't wait for it," Keyes informed her. "Chief, if you and Cortana can get us to one of the Covenant dropships, I can fly it out of here."

"Yes, sir," the Chief responded. Gesturing to the Marines, he led the way out of the bridge, pausing long enough for the medic to pick Fate up and cart her along with them. Captain Keyes glanced back once, ensuring that a grim-looking Chrono and shattered Nanoha were still following, before allowing the squad of Marines to escort him back toward the hangar.

"Nanoha…" Chrono began, somewhat awkwardly.

"I'm fine," she replied, in a hollow-sounding tone that suggested the exact opposite. Almost dazedly, she continued along behind the squad of Marines, letting Chrono cover the rear.

The trip back through the enemy ship passed in a daze. The Master Chief, backed up by the Marines, had little trouble carving through what little resistance remained in the already-cleared route back to the hangar, and before long the entire group was sitting in a captured Covenant dropship as it tore out of the _Truth and Reconciliation_'s hangar.

Up in the ship's cockpit, the Master Chief gazed out over Keyes's shoulder at the darkened vista below.

"Don't you think that was a little harsh?" Cortana suddenly cut into the Chief's thoughts.

Instantly guessing what she was referring to, he responded with a sigh. "Would you still ask me that if it had been the Captain that had been stabbed, or one of the Marines?"

"Well…"

"You and I know how hard it is to see a friend hurt," he reminded her. "But that doesn't mean we can afford to be careless."

Cortana fell silent as the dropship continued on its flight. Darkness veiled the escaping ship as it flew over the plateau below, setting a course back for the only home any of them could reach.


	5. Reasons to Fight

**Author's Note:** It has been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that, for keeping you all waiting so long. In my defense, there was an earthquake, and having to return from Japan early (despite never being in any actual danger), and then final projects for the semester. All on top of what's been the hardest chapter for me to write so far, I think.

But, in no small part thanks to all of the reviews I've been getting (which got me to rewrite this chapter when I realized I was forgetting something that I had meant to include), I'm perfectly happy with the result. So, here's hoping this will be worth the wait! Let me know what you all think.

**Disclaimer:** The same one as always. Nanoha and Halo belong to other people, not to me.

* * *

"So let me see if I understand you correctly," Captain Keyes began, leaning forward in his chair.

The chair in question protested with a hissing noise, a holdover from its days as a seat in one of the _Pillar of Autumn_'s lifeboats. The desk that he was sitting behind was little better; it was little more than a few panels of scrap metal haphazardly secured with cargo ties. Only the room's walls weren't makeshift, and those were clearly not built by human hands to begin with. Rather, they were the flat gray stone that seemed to mark all of the structures that the humans had found on Halo.

This particular structure was serving as the command post for Alpha Base, the firebase that the UNSC had established shortly after landing on Halo. With the _Pillar of Autumn_ out of commission, it was the primary command post for the human forces on Halo. And with a momentary respite in the constant fighting, it was now serving as a meeting place of sorts.

As the room lacked any other chairs, Chrono was forced to stand in front of the desk while he talked with the Captain. While he wasn't precisely standing at attention, there was a military air to his bearing all the same; somewhat of a hardness in his gaze, backed up with a firm posture. He met Keyes's stare evenly as the Captain continued speaking.

"You are an Enforcer, an agent of this Time-Space Administration Bureau," Keyes summarized. "Your ship was traveling through some kind of Slipspace when you detected what you call a dimensional rift, which led you into the middle of our fight over this ring world."

"That's mostly correct," Chrono replied. "Although what you call 'Slipspace' is something that the Bureau has not ever explored, given the inherent danger of dimensional rifts. Our ships travel through… well, call it the space between dimensions, or the dimensional sea."

Keyes rewarded him with a raised eyebrow and a skeptical, almost disapproving expression. Nevertheless, he continued, "The Time-Space Administration Bureau serves as an organizing federation and primary authority for several administered worlds, and watches over all worlds within its reach for potential threats, even the non-administered ones. Which is why this apparent 'dimensional rift' that you picked up on was enough to bring you right into the middle of our earlier battle. Do I have that right?"

"Yes, Captain," Chrono stiffly assented.

"Then I suppose the only question I have left is, what the _hell_ possessed you people to come storming in like that?" Keyes demanded, anger coming to the fore. "Leading with a frankly unbelievable demand, expecting all of us to simply stop fighting-"

"Captain," Chrono cut him off. Without backing down an inch, he shot back, "With all due respect, you are not a member of the Bureau and have no knowledge of our standard operating procedures. I can understand why you might think we have made mistakes, but the fact of the matter is that the Bureau acted as best it knew how."

"Is that so," Keyes stated flatly, the sharp tone in his voice leaving his doubts perfectly clear.

"An L-class cruiser such as the _Arthra_ is primarily equipped for exploratory missions," Chrono informed him acidly. "It is a transport, not a warship. In between a lack of decent offensive options and a potential large-scale crisis, our options were more limited than you might think."

Keyes just stared. "And… that weapon you deployed earlier…?" he asked almost hesitantly.

"Was the result of a special refit for the sake of the last mission that we undertook, and an indiscriminate weapon of last resort," Chrono pointed out. "I understand that our request may have seemed unreasonable, but our other option to deal with the problem was to come in firing."

"Which is even more unreasonable," Keyes sighed, conceding the point. "But then, why come in at all? Why not spend more time examining the situation?"

"Because of the danger presented by a dimensional rift," Chrono explained. "This 'Slipspace' that you use… I'll ask you to imagine a portal to that realm, but uncontrolled. One that can't be closed, and that can expand or move essentially at random. Something that will tear apart the very fabric of the world itself. _That_ is a dimensional rift."

Keyes frowned, silently appraising the young Enforcer who had just delivered this pronouncement of impending doom. Chrono met that gaze steadily as he continued, "This is the kind of event that destroys entire planets… or even entire worlds. You'll understand if there was somewhat of a sense of urgency for us-"

"Even if we had everything under control?" Keyes cut him off.

Chrono grimaced. "Well, that was somewhat unexpected," he admitted awkwardly. "The Bureau has never been able to fully control a dimensional rift once one has been created. Usually, though, we see them come into existence as the result of a particularly strong dimensional tremor, which tends to be less of a controlled event to begin with."

The conversation paused for a brief moment. Keyes maintained his silence, a stern look on his face as he simply stared at Chrono.

"So, now that I've explained all of that," Chrono finally broke the moment of tension, "would you explain your own situation?"

"Hold on," Keyes broke in almost before Chrono had finished speaking. "There was one other issue I wanted to clarify about your standard operating procedures."

Chrono rewarded him with an odd look. "About Bureau SOP?"

"How old did you say you were?" Keyes asked him bluntly.

"Fourteen," Chrono replied, a clear note of confusion in his voice. "Why?"

"Because that's a problem," Keyes informed him patiently. "The Bureau permits underage personnel in combat roles?"

"When it's justified," Chrono sighed in response. "The Bureau does have restrictions for age, but there are a few sets of special circumstances that have justified breaking those rules. The most common is particularly powerful magical talent, like that exhibited by myself, or Fate, or Nanoha. The… official position of the Bureau holds that having that talent under its control is preferable to the potential consequences of letting it run unrestrained."

Keyes frowned again. "There's any number of ways to do that without placing children in the line of fire."

"And that's usually what the dissenters argue," Chrono replied calmly. "On a personal note, I've found that service in the Bureau's armed forces has been a quite effective way of bringing my power under control. On a policy note, the Bureau likes putting people in jobs for which they will be effective, and high-power mages are often suited to some form of combat role."

"Despite a lack of the maturity or experience that come with age?" Keyes pointed out skeptically.

Chrono fixed the Captain with an almost haunted look in response. "The ability to destroy entire cities tends to encourage growing up faster than usual."

"Entire…" Keyes trailed off in surprise. With only the briefest moment of hesitation, he instantly dismissed the claim. "Ridiculous!"

"Believe what you like, Captain," Chrono sighed. "But the fact of the matter is that despite our ages, Fate, Nanoha, and I all possess a great deal of firepower, and none of us would be here now if Admiral Lindy didn't trust that we had the maturity and the knowledge necessary to put that power to its proper use."

Keyes merely laid a skeptical gaze on Chrono. After a long moment of silence, Chrono finally requested, "If we can set that aside for a moment, so that you can explain to me what we've gotten ourselves into?"

"Well," Keyes replied slowly, "I still can't say I'm convinced, but I can certainly explain the situation here."

"Thank you, Captain."

"Basically, the human race has been at war with the Covenant for the last several decades," Keyes began. "They just showed up over one of our colonies a few decades back and announced that 'your destruction is the will of the gods… and we are their instrument.' Things have gone downhill from there."

Chrono sighed. "Which is why no one listened when we tried to talk."

Keyes met that with a sharp glare. "We're not going to stop the Covenant from overrunning us all with words."

"Yes, Captain, I realize that now," Chrono replied with the faintest trace of irritation. "How _do_ you plan to stop them?"

"I was under the impression that you could care less about our war," Keyes pointed out, with an unreadable expression.

"You're concerned that they're going to try to use the power of this Lost Logia against you, correct?" Chrono pointed out. "One of my missions is to determine the function of this Lost Logia and prevent its misuse."

"Just a moment," Keyes interrupted. "Lost Logia?"

"Artifacts from forgotten worlds, that often carry a power beyond what current technology can control," Chrono explained succinctly. "This ring world would seem to qualify." Keyes nodded in understanding, permitting Chrono to continue, "From what I've seen, I think it likely that this 'Covenant' will attempt to stop me from examining this 'Halo', or sealing its power away should that become necessary."

"What you're telling me," Keyes slowly clarified, "is that in light of a common enemy, you believe we should work together."

"Really, Captain, we already are," Chrono pointed out. "If nothing else, I am obliged to request your assistance for Fate's sake." He hesitated for a long moment before continuing, "While I would prefer to complete my mission without outside help, current circumstances don't seem to permit that."

"And what you're saying is that if your mission is successful, then the Covenant won't have control of Halo," Keyes mused. "Forgive me for asking, but how would your Bureau in control of this world be any better?"

"I won't use this Halo against you," Chrono reminded him. "If it is too dangerous, I'll seal it so that it can never be used against you. And if we work together, we should be able to secure the ring that much faster. With things like this for example…"

Chrono brought his hand up, summoning a flat-screen display seemingly out of nowhere. On the screen, a diagram of the ring slowly rotated, with a number of points glowing brightly. "This is a map of the ring world, with major energy signatures designated. One of these points may be the control room we're looking for."

"Wellsley, can you see that?" Keyes asked no one in particular.

"Yes sir," a voice replied out of nowhere. The male voice continued, "Cross-referencing with our own maps of this world."

"It might be faster to find the control room by looking at those areas," Chrono suggested.

"Captain," Wellsley cut back in, "one of the points is a close match to the area identified as the location of the map room for this Halo."

"That's not very helpful," Keyes replied. "Got anything else for me?"

"One moment… Sir, there are four points in close proximity to one another a short distance up-spin. Most other points are isolated from each other."

"I see what you mean…" Chrono mused, pointing to his own map and the small cluster of lights that sat there.

Keyes nodded. "I'll send the Chief with a detachment of marines to check that area out. With luck, one of those will be the control room."

Chrono instinctively stiffened slightly as he faced Captain Keyes. "I will be accompanying him as well."

"Unfortunately," Keyes instantly cut him off, "that brings us back to our earlier problem." Chrono narrowed his eyebrows in confusion. That expression was quickly replaced with exasperated understanding as Keyes continued, "Regardless of your Bureau policies, I do not believe I can even permit by inaction the presence of minors in a combat zone, much less actively solicit their participation in combat operations."

"Captain, I am not under your command," Chrono reminded him with a clear note of irritation. "I have already explained that I have a mission that I intend to complete. I am even willing to place myself under your command to facilitate that mission's completion, but I will not accept an order that actively prevents me from carrying it out."

Keyes almost glared at the defiant teenager standing in front of him. "Are you telling me you would actively resist such an order?" Chrono merely nodded, leaving the Captain to sigh in frustration. "Isn't there anyone a little more cool-headed I can talk to about this? Your superiors perhaps?" he demanded.

"Unfortunately, Captain, I have as yet failed to reestablish communications with the _Arthra_," Chrono informed him, this time with a clear note of worry in his voice. "I have sent out a distress call, but without knowing the exact location of the closest Bureau relay base that we usually rely on for transportation or communication, I cannot be sure that it has even been received yet. Ideally the Bureau will be aware of the situation here within the next few hours, but I can make no promises."

"And until then, you're all that there is as far as the Bureau's concerned," Keyes concluded. "What's more, you're insisting on the Bureau's operational model where minors are concerned, relying on me to take the place of your usual command structure. Rather than permitting me to obey my own laws and keep you away from the front."

"I apologize, Captain," Chrono replied coolly. "But that is correct."

Keyes sighed heavily once more, running his hand over his forehead as he thought carefully. Finally, his gaze came back up to meet Chrono's. "I have one concession that I need you to meet."

"And that is?"

Fixing Chrono with an intense gaze, Keyes informed him, "I would appreciate it if you would come with me on a separate, lower-risk mission."

"… To one of these other areas?" Chrono asked in slight confusion. "Why would you-"

"To a Covenant weapons cache that a prisoner informed us about," Keyes cut him off. "We don't expect much of a threat, but having you with me would help ensure that nothing goes wrong."

Chrono frowned, eyes narrowing slightly. "Captain, I thought we went over this. I need to get to the control room, as soon as possible."

"_We_ need to get to the control room as soon as possible," Keyes corrected him almost coldly. "I am confident that the Chief can handle that mission himself, and if we're truly going to be allied, it shouldn't matter whether you personally find it or not. Furthermore," he continued with a steadily darkening expression, "if you are going to accept my command, I cannot have you dictating your actions to me. I will refrain from issuing orders that completely deny your participation in our alliance, but you must be willing to accept any other orders I issue. Understood?"

Chrono's eyes flashed slightly as Keyes's last word challenged him. He took a slight step forward as if to back the Captain into a corner, despite his shorter stature. The tension thickened as he stared angrily at Keyes.

All in an instant, the moment passed. Chrono looked down and away, muttering as he did so, "All right, I understand."

"Very well then," Keyes replied, seemingly unruffled by the minor confrontation. "Wellsley, get me in touch with Cortana. We have some searching to do."

* * *

Sunlight glimmered at the edge of the planet dominating the skyline, throwing a faint predawn glow over everything in sight. Wind whirled over the top of a lone mesa and the alien buildings on it. On the roof of one of those buildings, Nanoha shivered slightly as her white dress fluttered in the breeze.

That breeze did little to dent the mist hanging over the mesa below. A white blanket sat heavily over the UNSC firebase, reducing the alien buildings and the people that were moving around to silhouettes and shadows. Nanoha's gaze swept blankly over the entire scene, sparing not a moment of attention for anything below. Slowly, she glanced upward, to where the 'edges' of the world she was standing on formed a narrow band across the sky.

Her reverie was interrupted by a voice from behind. "What are you doing up here?" the Master Chief asked as he came up onto the roof.

Nanoha didn't even turn around, as if she hadn't heard. Only the faintest twitch of surprise betrayed the fact that she had noticed at all. All the same, she continued staring into the sky.

"You did-" the Chief started to confirm after a long few moments of silence from Nanoha.

"What am I supposed to do now…" she mumbled softly and dejectedly, as if speaking to herself.

Hidden behind his visor, the Chief's eyes narrowed slightly. Taking another step forward, he asked in reply, "What do you mean?"

That brought Nanoha around in a rush to glare at the Chief. "What am I supposed to do now?" she repeated at a shriek. Unshed tears mixed with a helpless fury in her gaze. "Fate's dying! I don't know any healing magic, and the _Arthra_ refuses to respond… All I can do," she continued, voice choking up as the tears started to flow, "is stand here…"

"Your friend isn't dying," the Chief attempted to reassure her. "Her condition isn't getting any worse."

Nanoha turned away again to look out over the firebase. "She's… not getting any better though," she choked out.

"With an injury like hers, it's not going to get better immediately," the Master Chief reminded her gently.

"I know that!" she shot back instantly. "I mean…" she started to continue, trailing off into a silence that quickly became awkward.

The Chief sighed slightly to himself. "Look, I know this is hard. Every man and woman in the UNSC has seen friends hurt in this war. There's only so much any one person can do about that risk."

"I did everything I could," Nanoha replied bleakly. "At least, I thought I did! I just wanted to help out somehow, make sure that Fate and Chrono and all of you got through this all right… and now…"

"Now, you've learned that war isn't so accommodating," the Master Chief told her grimly. "Even if you do everything right, the enemy will still manage to hurt you. And even the smallest mistake…"

He fell silent as Nanoha fixed him with an almost pleading look. After a brief pause, she quietly demanded, "Was it a mistake?"

"Yes," the Chief replied bluntly. "In that kind of situation, leaving an enemy alive is an unnecessary risk to take, for little if any benefit."

"Would it be better, then, to destroy everything that crossed my path?" Nanoha demanded bitterly. "_Fate_ wouldn't be here today if I had done that in the past!"

"That's not what I suggested," the Chief calmly replied. "However, in our current situation, we have only a minimal ability to take prisoners, and only at the conclusion of hostilities with forces that have surrendered, not in the midst of a running battle."

"So killing them is the only option?" Nanoha demanded. "There must be a reason for their actions, some way to satisfy everyone-"

"They've already stated their 'reasons'," the Chief sternly cut her off. "They've told us in no uncertain terms that their only acceptable ending to this war is the complete annihilation of the human race."

Nanoha could only stare in shock. In a very small voice, she stammered, "They're… trying to kill you all?" At the Chief's nod, she continued, "B-but _why_?"

"We don't know," the Chief informed her. "But until we can manage to find out, all we can do is bring this war to an end. And that's what I'll do… no matter what that takes."

"I…" Nanoha mumbled, still trying to process her shock and surprise. "I didn't know…"

The Chief turned toward the roof access. "Have you been to Medical yet?" he asked.

The somewhat abrupt change in subject caught Nanoha off guard. "N-no," she stammered in reply. Her gaze dropped to the ground as she continued more softly, "I don't know if I can face Fate yet…"

"I'm not talking about your friend, I'm talking about you," the Chief replied. As Nanoha glanced back up at him with a look of clear surprise and confusion, he continued, "Post-traumatic stress is a serious problem in warfare, even for trained soldiers, which you are not. At the very least, you should be talking to someone."

"Someone other than you?" Nanoha asked with a wan smile.

The Chief glanced back in surprise at the girl before turning back away. "Yes. Someone who's actually trained for this kind of situation."

At that moment, Cortana privately interrupted the Chief. "The Captain is calling for you."

"One moment, Cortana," the Chief replied. To Nanoha, he continued, "I need to get going, but think about it."

"O-okay," she haltingly assented. She stood there even after the Chief had left the roof, staring off into the steadily brightening sky.

* * *

Two Pelicans sat on the landing pads of the UNSC firebase. The muted roar of engines in standby mode echoed across the pads, providing a background pressure that could be felt in the air. Aside the Pelicans, two squads of Marines were lined up in full combat gear, armed with assault rifles and carrying fully-loaded packs. They stood at attention as three people came down to the pad from the headquarters building.

With Chrono on one side and the Master Chief on the other, Captain Keyes came to a stop in front of the Marines. After surveying them for a moment, Keyes turned to the Chief.

"All right, Chief," Keyes began. "You understand what I need you to do?"

"Yes, sir," he replied curtly. He was carrying his own assault rifle, but slung over his back was a larger sniper rifle.

"We know the Covenant were looking for Halo's map room," Keyes mused, "but with any luck, this will allow us to find the control room first. Good luck."

Raising his voice, the Master Chief turned to the first squad of Marines. "All right, let's go! Everyone in the Pelican!" As the row of Marines broke formation and headed for one of the gunships, the Chief turned back to Keyes. "Be careful, Captain."

"You needn't worry about me, Chief," Keyes smiled faintly. "I'll have plenty of people watching my back."

Next to him, Chrono sighed in irritation. He was ready for action as well, with his gray barrier jacket deployed and his usual device at the ready. In addition to those, however, he was wearing a helmet identical to the ones that the Marines wore. The slightly too-large helmet shifted awkwardly as he glanced over to the Captain, but it provided a link to the UNSC communications net and recorded everything that he saw, making it more than worth it in the end.

"I still wish I was going with you," he grumbled to the Chief.

"If you keep the Captain safe," the Chief shot back, "I'll make sure to let you know as soon as I find anything."

"Fair enough," Chrono conceded in reply. He glanced back at the headquarters building for a moment, and a slight frown crossed his face as he turned back to the Chief and the Captain. "Fate, of course, is still under medical supervision, but is there someone keeping an eye on Nanoha as well?"

"Last I saw of her," the Chief replied, "about a half-hour ago, she was up on the roof, but she may have gone to Medical herself by now. Cortana, if you could-"

"Wellsley is checking now," the AI interrupted before the Chief could even finish the request. After a moment's pause, she continued, "She's not in Medical, and since we don't have a camera covering the roof itself, we can't be sure if she's still there or not. There isn't any sign of her on any of the camera feeds for the roof accesses, though-"

"I'm coming with you."

The conversation came to an abrupt halt, interrupted by a all-too-familiar voice from behind. Captain Keyes was the first to turn around, just as Nanoha landed behind them. The shimmering wings on Nanoha's feet faded out of existence as she settled on the ground, fixing Chrono and the Captain all the while with a fiercely determined glare. Her barrier jacket stirred in the backdraft from the Pelicans' engines, and Raising Heart was armed and ready for action in her left hand.

"I'm coming with you," she repeated with an almost unnatural calmness. "There's nothing I can do here, and if there's anything at all I can do to help… I have to try."

Chrono stared at Nanoha in surprise. "Nanoha… I had assumed you would be staying here at the base."

"What would that help?" Nanoha asked him. "If I waited here, I'd end up doing nothing at all… and if there's one thing I can't stand…"

"Staying here wouldn't be doing nothing," the Chief interjected. "I can understand the desire to be helpful, but sometimes you need to worry about yourself first."

Nanoha's gaze wavered for a brief moment. "I don't know if standing around here will help with that," she finally muttered, unwilling to deny the Chief's words. "Sitting here, with nothing to do but worry about Fate, or Chrono, or all of you…" Her eyes came back up to sweep over all three of the people facing her. "I'd rather go with you all and help fight."

"I don't know if _I'm_ willing to accept this," Captain Keyes chose that moment to interject. "You're also a member of the Bureau, I assume?"

"Uh, well," Nanoha mumbled, caught off guard. "Not exactly."

"Chrono…" the Captain rumbled dangerously, fixing the Bureau enforcer with a glare.

"Captain," Chrono grimaced as he forced the words out, "as it stands, Nanoha is a civilian assistant that works with the Bureau on occasion. With all due respect, sir, I would consider her as an agent of the Bureau at this moment, and I would appreciate it if a member of the Bureau could be present on the Chief's mission."

"Completely unacceptable," Keyes shot back instantly. "I'm not about to let a civilian, who's younger than you no less, into combat just like that."

Both Nanoha and Chrono started speaking at once.

Nanoha protested, "But, I might be able to do something…"

Chrono began, "Captain, Nanoha is hardly…"

With a wave of his hand, the Captain silenced them both. "Enough."

Cortana chose that moment to interject over a private comm line. "Captain?"

"What is it, Cortana?" he snapped back with a mild note of irritation, causing Nanoha and Chrono to fix him with confused looks.

"Only that the regs on this _have_ been ignored in the past, sir," Cortana softly reminded him.

Keyes stiffened sharply. Too softly for anyone else to hear, he hissed angrily, "Are you suggesting I let someone else go through that, Cortana?"

"I know what decision she wants you to make," Cortana replied.

Keyes sighed in helpless frustration. His gaze swept over the Master Chief before falling on the girl still waiting expectantly on the landing pad. "What is it?" he asked of her slowly. "You're no SPARTAN, not even one of my Marines. What is it that's driving you to do this?"

Nanoha replied with a small, slightly strained smile. "Because if you have the power to help, shouldn't you use it?"

"Even in a war zone?" the Captain demanded.

"I've had to fight before," she replied. "I had to fight my way through the Garden of Time against a small army of combat drones and fought against an enemy more powerful than all of us here combined by myself."

Next to Nanoha, Chrono twitched in irritation as she inadvertently referenced classified Bureau information. Ignoring him, she continued, "I haven't had to fight an enemy like this before, but I'll make it through just fine. I _will_."

The Captain sighed in frustration one final time. "Chief…"

"Sir."

"Keep her alive."


	6. Assault on the Control Room

**Author's Note:** Given that it's been literally years, I feel as though I owe you all an apology for letting this sit idle for as long as I have. I would guess that a lot of people assumed this had been abandoned without fanfare, and I know for a fact (because I do read and treasure every review I get!) that several people want to see this continue.

Going into this, I definitely wanted to avoid being one of those fanfic writers that... simply disappeared, and yet that's exactly what I did. For that, I sincerely apologize. Mind you, I can't necessarily promise that you'll like me being here and talking any more than you liked me being completely off the grid, but I'd rather get into that in a second note that I'll put at the end of this chapter. The short version of the bad news is that this story in particular has dropped on my priority list a little over the year and a half since it was last updated.

For those of you that are just now finding this story, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy it. For those of you that have been waiting (eagerly or otherwise) for further updates to it, again, you have my apologies, and I hope you won't judge me too harshly for it.

I'll have more to say at the end of the chapter. Until then...

* * *

Another vibration rattled through the troop bay as the Pelican hit a patch of turbulence. Nanoha practically bounced off the ceiling before the harness she was in caught her and all but slammed her back down to the floor.

"Can't this be tightened any further?" she meekly requested, tugging experimentally at the straps that still hung just a shade too loosely on her.

None of the others in the cargo bay even twitched. Most of the Marines were not even looking at her, sharing side conversations punctuated by the occasional glance at the young girl in their midst. The vibrating roar of the engines just outside made unassisted conversation somewhat problematic, but they were all equipped with comm systems. Due to her last-minute addition to the roster and the rush of their departure, she was not.

"They can't hear me, can they," Nanoha sighed helplessly, the metal wall at her back vibrating in time with the Pelican's engines. "Raising Heart?"

_What is it?_ her device asked silently, using its mental connection to Nanoha.

_Isn't there any way for me to talk to them?_

_I will see what can be done,_ Raising Heart replied.

Three places away, next to the troop bay doors, the Master Chief stood idly by, waiting for his part of the mission to begin. His thoughts were soon interrupted, though, as the comm system in his suit crackled to life.

"Hey, Cortana, could you reconfirm the coordinates for me?" Flight Officer Carol Rawley, better known by her call sign of Foehammer, asked almost offhandedly.

Almost distractedly, the AI replied, "Wait one, I'm in the middle of something at the moment."

There was a brief pause, and then Foehammer spoke again. "I don't know about this, Chief. How'd we get these coordinates again?"

"We got them from the Time-Space Administration Bureau," the Chief replied shortly. "From what I was told, they're high energy readings or something like that."

"And if the control room we're looking for isn't giving off a lot of energy?" she countered skeptically. "I don't know, I'm just not sure about all this."

"Well, both the Bureau's Chrono and Cortana seemed fairly convinced that we could find the control room this way," the Chief hedged in reply. "Cortana?"

"I _said_ I'm in the middle of something," Cortana shot back, this time with definite irritation. "Could you be patient?"

"Surely you can spare something for-" the Chief started to rebuke her.

The tail end of the complaint, however, was lost amidst a snarled curse through the comms from Foehammer. The Pelican's engines howled as it heeled over and dove sharply, vectoring toward the snowy ground and the canyons below.

"Covenant air patrol," Foehammer explained sharply. "Three Banshees. Comin' in fast and high."

"Can you evade?" the Chief asked.

"We're about to find out," she practically snarled. "Heads up, everyone, we've got Covenant air power inbound. Hold on!"

There was a moment of dead silence, as the Marines in the bay exchanged looks ranging from confident to horrified. The Chief's gaze swept over the bay, reassuring everyone with his presence. Then it froze on one particular passenger. Nanoha was fiddling with her harness again, her eyes fixed on the Master Chief.

As her mouth opened, the Chief sighed heavily, not expecting to hear anything at all over the Pelican's engines. Then a voice burst out from his helmet speakers. "If you open up that bay door, I can do something about the enemies after us!" Nanoha insisted clearly.

The Master Chief stared in silence for a moment, trying to figure out what had just happened. Into that silence, Cortana chirped, "I was busy trying to figure out what her device was doing, but once I compared it to the data from our very first encounter in space over Halo, I realized it was a communications link. It was actually kind of difficult to sort out all of the information, considering the different data structure-"

"Cortana," the Chief cut her off.

"Right. Sorry. Anyway, I linked her Raising Heart into the comm network. She must have caught the tail end of Foehammer's warning."

"Look, Nanoha," the Chief began to explain, "just stay there and let Foehammer do her job. She'll get us to the LZ safely, so there's no need for you to-"

Several things happened at once. Nanoha finally found the release tab, and the crash harness came undone in an instant, releasing her into the troop bay. Then the Pelican shuddered violently as plasma fire began burrowing into the aircraft's fuselage. A near-miss from an enemy fuel rod exploded just behind the port engine, sending an even stronger tremor through the troop bay. Snarling, Foehammer cut in the afterburners, sending the Pelican leaping forward and out of the enemy line of fire. However, Nanoha was already off balance from the enemy fire, and the unexpected surge of acceleration was the final straw. She went flying through the troop bay with a shriek.

The Chief extended an arm and caught the girl just before she would have slammed heavily into the troop bay door. "And this is why you _don't_ mess with that harness in flight," he rebuked her, maintaining a secure grip around Nanoha's waist. Switching channels, he continued, "Foehammer?"

"If we're real lucky, I can get this bird on the ground of my own choice!" she shot back curtly.

"Open the bay door," the Chief replied.

"Wha- Chief, what are you thinking?!" Foehammer yelled back in shock. "Getting yourself killed-"

"Just do it," the Chief interrupted.

The rear gate on the Pelican unsealed with an audible clanking of locks and gears. Slowly, it began to open, unleashing a veritable maelstrom of wind through the troop bay. "I hope you're sure about this, Chief," Foehammer replied in a subdued tone.

Meanwhile, Nanoha set her feet down and leveled Raising Heart. "Let's go!" she yelled into the roaring wind.

"Cannon mode," Raising Heart acknowledged, reforming into the lance-like cannon.

As the Pelican's rear hatch opened fully, the three Banshees behind came into view, easily matching the larger gunship's acceleration. As they closed the distance further, the plasma cannons under each wing flared again, unleashing a veritable rain of fire. In response, Foehammer hauled at the stick, ending the Pelican's dive abruptly and causing most of the fire to miss below. The ramp that the open bay door had become took several hits, and another bolt bounced off the steel floor barely a meter away from Nanoha's foot.

She ignored the hot flecks of metal that sprayed harmlessly over her barrier jacket, her attention fixed on the enemy fighters chasing them from behind and the sphere of energy growing in front of her. As the Banshees outside swept upward to follow the Pelican, one of them strayed into her line of fire.

"Divine Buster!" she called out, before the Banshees could fire again. In the next instant, the sphere of energy resolved itself into a harsh beam of pinkish light. The troop bay's walls were dyed a sharp white as the blast tore out of the Pelican's open rear hatch and arrowed toward the enemy Banshee.

Both of the other Banshees broke off almost frantically. The targeted one attempted to dodge, but its roll had only just begun by the time the energy beam caught up with it, and half of the main body was torn away by the attack. What was left of the craft blossomed into a fireball, showering pieces down onto the snowfield below.

Nanoha charged for the open bay door, heedless of the Marines' stares on her. Before the Chief or any of the Marines could say a word, she had leapt off into space, leaving the Pelican entirely.

"Axel Fin," Raising Heart stated calmly, as a pair of pink wings flared into existence at Nanoha's ankles. A trail of light hung in the air behind her as she flashed away from the Pelican, zeroing in on one of the two remaining Banshees.

As she flew, a ring of energy spheres materialized in the air around her. With almost casual ease, the series of smaller bolts shot out, curving unerringly toward the final Banshee. It rolled in an effort to escape, but two attacks landed cleanly on the left wing, carving out large holes in the Banshee's airframe. Engines flaring and sputtering desperately, it tumbled downward in a steep dive.

Meanwhile, the final surviving Banshee banked and dove toward the canyons below, pulling away from Nanoha as its own engines lit up. A burst of speed gave it a significant advantage in distance over Nanoha as it made for the cover of the stone walls below and off to the rear of the Pelican.

"You're not getting away…" Nanoha grimly promised as she too accelerated.

Back at the Pelican, the Chief informed Foehammer, "One of our passengers has gotten off. Do you have a visual?"

"Gotten off?!" Foehammer replied in a shocked tone. " No, I don't see anyone falling out of my bird! Mind telling me what exactly's goin' on, Chief?"

"That girl from the Bureau," the Chief sighed. "Apparently she can fly."

"You're kiddin' me!" she exclaimed. "How is that…?"

"They have a tendency to call it magic," the Chief not-explained. "Cortana's somewhat dissatisfied with that explanation."

Needing no further prompting, Cortana immediately cut in, "Magic is a figment of the imagination. There must be some rational explanation for the abilities we've seen. If you'd just let me ask some questions-"

"We are kind of in the middle of something," the Chief reminded her.

"And when we _had_ the chance, everyone was 'busy' talking about other things!" Cortana fumed.

"Either way," Foehammer mused, "I can't see her at all… she's nowhere near us at the moment. She can hear me, right?" she confirmed almost to herself before switching to a wider broadcast. "This is Foehammer to… um… any allied units in the area. Do you read me? Over."

There was a brief pause, just long enough to leave her concerned that there wasn't going to be any response. Then the comm came to life. "This is Nanoha, I can hear you," Nanoha radioed back.

"Nanoha, where are you?" Foehammer quickly asked. "I need you covering me in case we run into another patrol, and I can't see you at all."

"I'm chasing that last enemy," Nanoha reported, an unusually grim note in her voice. "I'm not going to let him get away."

Foehammer paused for the briefest moment. "I need you covering my bird," she reminded Nanoha. "Can you still see me?"

"Only barely," Nanoha muttered distractedly. Faintly, Foehammer heard the sharp whine of plasma fire. "He's stopped trying to run so quickly, but you're still moving away."

"Yes, I realize that," Foehammer muttered in irritation. "The point of this exercise is for me to get to those points you all gave us, after all. If we run into another-"

The Pelican rocked violently, cutting Foehammer off. Shouting echoed through the comm link as the Marines made their opinion of the rough ride apparent. Their pilot twisted around in the seat, frantically looking around. "Chief, what's going on down there?!" she shrieked.

"You no longer have a bay door," the Chief calmly informed her, as he looked at the glowing ruin immediately outside the troop bay. "Took a direct hit from a fuel rod."

"From _where_?!"

The question was answered as a Banshee swept past the lurching Pelican from below. The sparking left engine and the shuddering airframe testified to the damage that it had taken from Nanoha's earlier attack, but it proved that it was still airworthy by looping around above the Pelican and setting up for another attack run.

"Get back here _now_, Nanoha!" Foehammer yelled. "I need backup over here!"

"I'm trying!" Nanoha yelled back. "I can't just disengage from this one anymore, though!"

Plasma fire whistled past the Pelican as Foehammer managed to wrench it out of the damaged Banshee's line of fire. "I'm not going to be able to shake him at this rate!" Foehammer yelled into the comm. "You'd better hurry up!"

Nanoha remained silent for a long several seconds. When she finally broke the silence, a heavy sigh was the first thing she offered. "I finished off that last one, but I don't think I'll make it back in time for a typical intercept. We'll have to try something else."

"Come on!" Foehammer howled angrily. "You can't just leave us hanging-"

From the radio, Raising Heart's voice declared, "Divine Buster, Extension."

From the cockpit, Foehammer twisted around to glance behind her. The Marines and the Chief stared in shock out of the still-open troop bay door. A small spark of pink light from off in the distance rapidly grew into another coherent beam of light, catching the already-damaged target Banshee with a direct hit. When the glare from the explosion faded, that Banshee had simply ceased to exist.

Dead silence reigned for a brief moment. "What… was _that_?" Foehammer asked with the slightest note of awe in her voice.

"Divine Buster, Extension." Raising Heart tonelessly answered. "A modification to Divine Buster optimized for maximum-range attacks."

"I'm coming back in," Nanoha reported wearily. "At least I got them all."

"Roger that, Nanoha, and thanks for the support," Foehammer radioed back. "I should be able to keep her in the air long enough to get you all to the target zone."

Silence fell over the comm channels as Nanoha began her flight back; it took her no more than a minute or two to rejoin the Pelican. She spiraled around it in celebration as she caught up again, waving to Foehammer as she swept past the cockpit, then fell slightly back again and shot into the troop bay.

As she went to strap herself back in, she idly asked, "Right. Um, can this harness be tightened any further?"

Mutely, the Marine next to her reached over and pulled on one of the straps. After confirming that it wouldn't move, he simply shrugged and replied, "Nope, that's the best we can do."

"Oh. Kinda figured," Nanoha sighed. She relaxed slightly, seemingly eager to take a moment's break… and then tensed up again as a new voice echoed in her head, courtesy of Raising Heart's link to the comm lines.

"We _really_ need to talk," the Chief informed her bluntly.

"About…?" Nanoha asked a little guardedly.

"Do you know why I didn't want you coming along on this mission?" the Chief asked her.

"You didn't…?" Nanoha replied in confusion. "I mean, your Captain seemed a little annoyed about all this, but you…"

"Kept silent because it wasn't my place to speak," the Chief cut in. "There is such a thing as the chain of command. Do _you_ know what that means?"

"Well, um…"

"It describes how everyone in the military fits into the command structure," the Chief lectured her. "Who is responsible for what, and who takes orders from who."

"Oh! Yeah, I get it," Nanoha cut in cheerfully. "Like how Admiral Lindy gives me orders, right?"

The Chief sighed heavily. "Perhaps, but let me ask you this. If you and Chrono disagreed regarding what to do in a battle, what would happen then?"

Nanoha cocked her head in thought. "Well, um… it doesn't really happen all that often. Usually we just end up fighting. And if we want to do different things, then we just kind of do them." A slight blush colored her cheeks. "Actually, there was the one time…"

Down near the destroyed bay door, the Chief shot Nanoha a glance. Cutting her off, he continued, "What that tells me is that you don't really understand the idea of command. Any one of these Marines will follow my orders regardless of whether or not they understand them, or even if they disagree. That's how it has to work."

"But…" Nanoha protested. "What if the people in charge are making a mistake?"

"People who get promoted usually aren't prone to making mistakes," the Chief shot back dryly. "Nevertheless, there's no need to be mindless about following orders. In the rare instances where a superior doesn't understand something or is doing something unwise, juniors should be welcome to voice their concerns and suggest alternatives." His voice hardened noticeably as he continued, "They should _not_ just do what they please without so much as an explanation, never mind permission."

"Oh," Nanoha said in a small voice. "But… We had to do something about them… You hadn't told me not to…"

"That matters less than you might think," the Chief informed her. "The Captain told me to keep you alive, and I would like to be able to do that. I won't be able to if you insist on haring off on your own. The best that will happen is that you end up getting yourself killed by going off without support."

"You call that the-" Nanoha started to say.

"The worst," the Chief finished, "is that you will cause this entire mission to fail by getting _all_ of us killed. As nearly happened just now!"

There was a long pause. "Yeah," Nanoha agreed in a chastised voice. "That's worse."

"If you're going to be a part of this squad, you need to be willing to _fully_ accept my command," the Chief lectured. "That means following my orders and not acting on your own without them. Can you do that?"

"All right," Nanoha replied slowly. "I understand."

Considering that the two were not talking face-to-face, the Chief's slow nod was somewhat pointless. "Good." The conversation cut off sharply as he closed the comm line. "Cortana."

"Yes, Chief?" the AI responded instantly.

"Get with her AI and figure out what exactly she can do. I need to figure out how exactly I can put her into the squad."

"Understood," Cortana acknowledged. "Her demonstrated capabilities seem to fit into an air support profile, but further information can't hurt."

Meanwhile, down in the middle of the troop bay, Nanoha sighed heavily. _I swore to myself, six months ago, that I wouldn't keep making mistakes, that I'd do my best__…_ she thought to herself in a steadily blackening mood. _Is that not going to be enough this time?_

Her only answer was the howling wind, as the Pelican descended ever further into the winter storm that awaited below.

* * *

"Get ready, Chief," Foehammer alerted. "We're coming up on the first of those points that that Bureau identified." After a momentary pause, she continued, "It looks like it's along the canyon wall, not on the ground."

As the Pelican continued to descend, flakes of snow began whipping into the troop bay, driven by a stinging wind that lashed at the now eagerly waiting Marines. Outside the blasted bay doors, dark shadows loomed out of the white-out. Jagged stone canyon walls finally rose above the Pelican as it descended into the canyon.

"Copy that, Foehammer," the Chief replied tersely. "Are you seeing any kind of structures yet?"

"Hard to see in this weather, Chief!" she shot back instantly. The Pelican slowed sharply as she continued, "I see something on the canyon wall there… could be a landing pad of some kind. Wouldn't want to try landing my bird on that thing though."

The Pelican's engines flared as it slowed almost to a stop, hovering just off the platform extending out from the canyon wall. Unlike the dark gray rock of the surrounding canyon walls, though, the landing platform was a metallic grayish silver, and only barely larger than the Pelican hovering next to it. A small entrance into a tunnel in the rock was the landing platform's only other feature.

"All right then," the Chief sighed. "Marines, Nanoha, prepare to disembark and secure the landing pad. Foehammer, once we're off, take a look around and see if you can't find a better spot to put down. Don't get too far off, though."

"Roger that, Chief," Foehammer replied. "When do I come pick you up?"

"We'll call if we need you back here, and we'll stay in touch," he told her. "If we drop out of contact, check back here in half an hour; if no one is there, no one ever will be there."

"Roger that, Chief," Foehammer repeated in a much more subdued tone. The Pelican swung around in midair, leaving the landing platform just below the open troop bay. "Hit it, Marines!"

The Chief and the Marines piled out of the troop bay and spread out over the landing pad, covering every angle with their assault rifles. Nanoha shot out just behind as a streak of pink light, hovering a few feet off the center of the pad.

Nothing else moved as the Pelican banked away and down. "Is there nobody else home?" one of the Marines asked slowly.

"Be nice to beat the Covenant to it for once," another shot back.

"I don't like this," Cortana muttered privately to the Chief. "This doesn't look like a control room."

"Can't tell from out here," he reminded her. To Nanoha and the Marines, he continued, "Keep a watch on the pad. I'm going to take a quick look around."

Nanoha frowned slightly but said nothing as the Chief made his way into the tunnel. A series of bends in the tunnel brought him rapidly out of line of sight, and she sighed heavily and turned her gaze to the gray skies above. Snow rained incessantly down, carried on a biting wind that left her shivering slightly.

After a long minute, the Chief reappeared. "Dead end," he reported. "I don't know what that is in there, but there aren't any controls we can use. Foehammer, can you hear me?"

"Sure can, Chief! On my way back now," her voice replied. And true to her word, the roar of the Pelican's engines faded in shortly afterward. It took them little more than a minute before they were back in the air, flying ever farther into the network of canyons.

"So what was in there, Chief?" Foehammer asked privately.

"Don't know," he told her. "Some kind of energy conduit or generator, perhaps? Cortana couldn't tell what use it might serve. I can see how it might be giving off some kind of energy signature, but there's nothing much we can do with it."

"You realize that's not encouraging, right?" Foehammer shot back. "It's looking like this next one is also up on the canyon wall."

"If it looks the same as last time, skip it," the Chief ordered. "We have a chance here to beat the Covenant to the control room, but we'll lose whatever lead we had if we have to stop and check every little thing."

"You got it, Chief," she replied.

One bypassed cliff-side landing platform later, the Pelican roared downward into yet another canyon. "It's almost looking like there are two in this last canyon," Foehammer reported. "But they're the last two."

"That's not encouraging," Cortana pointed out. "Nanoha, Raising Heart, what were the criteria for these points, anyway?"

Nanoha fidgeted anxiously in her harness. "Um, I don't really know. Amy and the _Arthra_ produced that map, so…"

"Hold on a moment…" Foehammer cut in. "This last target…"

The Pelican descended rapidly. Out of the whiteout below, a massive gray pyramidal structure came into view, embedded in one end of the canyon. The entire area was completely deserted save for the descending Pelican and its passengers; an almost unnatural calm hung over the structure.

"Now _this_ looks interesting!" Foehammer crowed victoriously. "Ready for action?"

Before anyone could answer her, she swung the Pelican around and brought it down for a landing on a rocky patch in the midst of the snowfield. Needing no further encouragement, the Marines charged out of the Pelican once more. Silence greeted them. Snowflakes drifted lazily down from the slate gray sky as the Marines spread out, advancing on the structure in front of them.

"Nanoha, aerial recon," the Chief ordered curtly as he leaped from the Pelican's bay. Practically before the last word was out of his mouth, a white form blurred past, leaving a pink trail as she shot out and upward.

"Everything looks clear on the ground, Chief!" one of the Marines yelled.

From above, Nanoha glanced around the structure. Walkways and ramps were carved into the sides, giving the entire building a terraced appearance; the "top" was a flat, open area with a massive blast door embedded into the canyon wall. Nothing moved anywhere in sight.

"Nothing's moving," she conveyed this information onward. "I don't see anyone else around."

"Excellent," the Chief replied as he gestured the Marines forward. "Foehammer, hold there for the moment, but be ready for anything."

The roar of the Pelican's engines faded out as Foehammer settled in to wait. Meanwhile, the squad cautiously advanced onto the ramps and up the structure, Nanoha hovering above almost impatiently. Before long, they had advanced all the way to the blast door. The Marines spread out, covering the area as they had before; the Chief headed for the door.

"There's _something_ here," Cortana observed dryly. As she said this, the door began to grind open.

"Chief!" Foehammer came on over the radio. "There's something on the radar!"

In the same instant, Raising Heart reported tonelessly, "Something approaches at high speed."

Instantly, the Chief whirled around. "Foehammer, get off the ground!" he ordered sharply. "Defensive positions! Nanoha, you are clear to fire!"

At the base of the pyramid, the Pelican's engines began to warm up again, coming back online all too slowly. Hands tensed on their assault rifles as the Marines scanned the surrounding sky warily, searching for the incoming threats.

Nanoha, hovering a few feet above the center of the pyramid, barely even paused for a moment. Marines glanced over as the lance-like Raising Heart fell into firing position, pointing slightly up and away from the door. Even with the direction apparent, though, their unaided eyes couldn't see a thing through the weather.

A sphere of energy blossomed in front of Nanoha, and a triangular frame bracketed it. A wave of whitish light issued forth from the frame, forming a marked-out column with the energy blast ready in its exact center.

"Divine Buster, Extension!" Nanoha called out, firing a heavy beam of energy off into the distance. A small orange flare flickered and died just as quickly. "Got one!"

Answering sparks of blue and green issued forth, but none of the enemy weapons were anywhere near effective range. Plasma rained down on the canyon floor off in the distance.

The Chief cursed. "Foehammer, get out of there!"

"I'm trying, Chief!" she yelled back. The Pelican's engines flared powerfully as the craft began to lift away from the ground.

"What about _us_?" Cortana pointed out sharply.

"Everyone inside!" the Chief ordered, gesturing to the still-open blast doors.

"What about-" Nanoha began to ask, a moment before a stray plasma bolt arrowed in and slammed into the Pelican's port engine. Echo 419 spun wildly out of control as the engine, along with the entire port wing, disintegrated with an echoing boom.

Nanoha shot out and away from the blast doors. "I'm going to try and help!" she yelled back.

"Make it fast!" the Chief yelled back, now able to make out the Banshees and dropships with his own eyes.

"You're letting her?" Cortana asked mildly.

"She's mobile enough," the Chief responded. "The Covenant won't be able to cut her off."

The incoming plasma fire was growing much more accurate, and the airspace around the crashing Pelican was filled with a hail of fire. Foehammer fought the controls desperately, trying to bring the crippled bird down as gently as possible.

"Wide Area Protection," Raising Heart intoned, as Nanoha shot into position directly above Foehammer's Pelican. The hail of energy fire suddenly ceased entirely, hammering into a barricade in front of Nanoha with devastating force. She screamed in surprised pain as the strain of holding back the attacks hit her, and the wide barrier shuddered violently.

The moment of respite, however, gave Foehammer all the time she needed. The Pelican landed heavily on the rocky ground, and the entire frame shuddered as the no-longer-airworthy craft hit. The troop bay simply disintegrated into a mass of twisted metal. However, while it could not have taken off again, the Pelican remained more or less in one piece, and while Foehammer was jolted heavily by the crash landing, she survived it.

As Foehammer leapt out of the cockpit, however, one of the incoming dropships opened up with a heavy tri-barreled plasma cannon, and two of the Banshees fired fuel rods. As the plasma fire hit, hexagonal ripples of light spread from the impact points. Then the fuel rods hit almost in unison, and Nanoha's barrier shattered like glass. She frantically dove downward, dodging the incoming plasma fire by virtue of pure speed.

Foehammer had a moment to glance upward before the flying girl dropped out of the sky next to her. A hand latched firmly around her wrist, and then Nanoha took off again. For a moment it felt like her arm had been wrenched entirely out of its socket, but the pain lessened as Foehammer reached around and grabbed Nanoha's wrist with her other arm.

"Sorry about that!" Nanoha called. "But we need to be leaving!" A pink trail of light traced its way to the peak of the pyramid and then through the blast doors, right over the Chief's head.

"Everyone get back!" the Chief called out loudly as Nanoha's return registered. "Find some cover and prepare to hold against the Covenant!" His gaze swept over the wide, open corridor, noting the total lack of any kind of functional cover, aside from some ridges along the walls.

Then the blast doors began to grind shut again, cutting off their view of the Covenant dropships now hovering over the canyon outside. They closed with a crash of metal on metal, and one of the Marines shrugged. "Are the doors going to let the Covenant in, like they did us?"

"Get ready for action, if they do," the Chief ordered, advancing down the corridor. "Nanoha-"

"Yes?" she asked, from a sitting position along one of the walls up ahead.

"Are you all right?" the Chief asked a little belatedly.

"I'm a little tired," Nanoha told him. "But I'll be fine."

The Chief looked her over appraisingly. "Be ready for another defense," he told her. "It might be the only cover we get in here."

"Chief!" one of the Marines yelled out from ahead, poking his head back from around a corner. "I think we've found something!"

Without hesitation, the Chief hurried over to the Marine and took his own look. "Down that way, Chief," the Marine prompted, pointing to a door just as it slid closed. It hissed open again obligingly when the Chief approached, offering him a clear view of the room beyond. Spread out before him was a vast cavern, dominated by a holographic display of the ring world. A glass walkway led out into the center of the open chamber, before splitting into a circular walkway around another smaller holographic display of the nearby planet. Dead ahead was something that could only be a control panel.

"We've found the control room," the Chief sighed in something almost like relief. "All right, everyone, bunker down and get ready to hold the line against the Covenant!" To Cortana, he continued, "We'll need some support out here. Can you get in touch with HQ?"

"Not through this mountain I can't," Cortana replied bluntly. "Nanoha should be able to call Chrono, but that's the best we can manage."

Almost before Cortana finished, Nanoha groaned audibly. "Actually, he just called me..." Every Marine in the hallway turned to look at the young girl, whose face had gone a sickly shade of white. "They're in trouble too."

* * *

**Author's (Second) Note:** Okay, I promised more to say about this story. Might as well get to it.

As I said earlier, the short version is that this story isn't as high on the priority list as it used to be. The long version... well, to some extent fanfiction in general stopped being important to me, which is why I let my stories and my account here fall completely silent for as long as they did, but in all honesty my interest in writing this story specifically was fading by the time that I fell silent.

In part, that was because of the direction the story was taking. I realized somewhere along the line that I was effectively rewriting the original Halo story while allowing a substantial number of otherwise doomed Halo characters to survive. Particularly, that last scene you just read where Nanoha saves Foehammer (at least for now) was what drove that home for me. And I was agonizing quite severely over whether or not I wanted to be writing that kind of story.

Now, it's not all bad news: I have no intention of fully abandoning or cancelling Lost Logia Incident Report: Halo Array. However, I think it's likely that this is "officially" going to go on hiatus for a bit, as I work on writing other stories and seriously think about what I want to do with it. And this is where you all come in - because you can help me think about it.

As I see it, I have a few options for how this story goes from here. Regarding rewriting the story of the original Halo, that's something I'm just going to have to make my peace with... at least for the next chapter, anyway, and after that the story was going to start diverging fairly significantly from the original Halo one anyway. The harder question is how dark this story should be. Obviously, the original Halo was more towards "kill them all", while Nanoha is much more lenient to its named human characters. And back when I was first thinking about this story, I was more leaning towards the latter, as evidenced by the fact that Fate is injured, rather than killed.

So really, the question is simple: Which would you all prefer to see? Which do you think would make a better story? Am I worrying over nothing regarding the course the story is taking? If you all could let me know what you think, that would be great! And in return, I will make this promise: I will finish writing this. I can make no promises about timing! It may be a long time yet before I actually write the last word of this story. But that day will come.

Until then, thanks for reading, and let me know what you think!


	7. Containment Breach

**Author's Note: **For anyone who's checked my profile and realized that another story has gone up just recently... fear not, loyal fans, for my New Year's resolution to write more extends to this story as well.

Although before we worry about that, I really want to thank everyone who took the time to offer encouraging reviews on the last chapter. I always get a little anxious posting new things to the site (and I mean, spend a day resolutely ignoring my email for fear that I'll see notifications related to what I just posted kind of anxious) so it really is great to see people get excited about fresh updates to the story. And that kind of thing is infectious, too, because I came away from a lot of the reviews feeling a lot more enthusiastic to write more of this. So thank you, everyone! Hopefully you will continue to take time out of your day to read my stories.

And hopefully there will be stories to read! If only because I've decided to institute a regular update schedule. Previously, I worried about committing to hard deadlines, out of the fear that I would procrastinate and then either be forced to throw something together at the last minute, or miss the deadline entirely. However, as regular readers of this story likely already could have told me, I've come to the realization that without a regular schedule, I won't post anything at all for months on end. For the sake of actually meeting my goal of "write more", then, it seems that holding myself to a schedule might help.

For now, I'm going to try and update this story once a month, on the first Wednesday of the month. If it turns out I'm writing more (or less, although hopefully not less) than what I need to post a new chapter every month, I can always reassess the situation. And if a delay does happen, although I'll try very hard to avoid that, I'll leave a note on my profile page to that effect.

Anyway, the story! As is about to be obvious, I settled down about writing a fix to the Halo story and just rolled with it. You'll see soon enough. For now, it will suffice to say that Captain Keyes is another character who I didn't want to see die. Let me know what you think!

* * *

"For the last time, Corporal," Chrono groused somewhat angrily, "I would only barely be able to carry anyone else, much less this entire squad."

The young Bureau enforcer hovered about a foot off the green, murky sludge of a seemingly endless swamp, looking down on Captain Keyes and his squads of Marines as they trudged through the muck. One of the Marines stared up at him, envy and disgust warring for dominance of his facial expression. "Surely you can do _something_!" he burst out angrily.

"Yeah, you could at least join the rest of us," one of the other Marines muttered under his breath.

"Stow it, Marines," Sergeant Johnson snarled. "Y'all are the best of the best; act like it!"

The grumbling quieted down after that, the Marines focusing back on their mission. Night had fallen on the ring world, and in between that and the tangled, overgrown swamp, visibility was poor. With Captain Keyes at their backs, no one wanted to miss any potential threats. And yet, despite occasional flashes on their motion sensors at maximum range, no hostile target presented itself. Only endless murky water, ankle deep, filled with roots and shrubs and the occasional tree.

In the distance, a massive stone structure loomed. Boxes and portable lights, clearly of Covenant make, were scattered in disarray around an arch-like entrance in the wall. At the same time, light spilled out from within, from strips on the walls that looked remarkably unlike anything the Covenant had ever created. Glancing at the icons on a small tablet he had brought with him, Captain Keyes nodded.

"That's our target," he confirmed. "Sergeant, take a squad and secure the entrance. We'll be right behind you."

"Aye aye, Captain," Sergeant Johnson replied instantly. Nodding to the lead group of Marines, he took off toward the building at a steady jog, leaving the Captain with Chrono and the second squad of Marines.

The momentary delay gave the Captain a moment to more closely examine their destination. It was immediately apparent that the structure ahead was one of the ring's original buildings, bearing no resemblance at all to anything the Covenant had ever built. And yet it was supposed to be the location of a Covenant cache, according to their intelligence. Were the Covenant using the native structures as well? But if they were, then why hadn't they run into any hostile force yet…?

"Something the matter, Captain?" Chrono interrupted his chain of thought.

The distraction gave Captain Keyes an excuse to examine the Bureau enforcer, instead. Normally, it would be unthinkable to confide in someone that had to be half his own age, if even. And yet, there was an undeniable intensity to his stance and bearing. Impossible as it was in someone of his age, the Bureau enforcer had the command presence of someone used to both giving orders and taking responsibility for them.

"I would say so," the Captain replied evenly. "If this is supposed to be a Covenant weapons cache, where are the Covenant?"

Chrono's brow furrowed slightly as he considered. "I suppose it's possible they're holding inside the building itself, and didn't post any guards outside," he suggested doubtfully. "Back at base, you said a Covenant prisoner informed you of this cache? It seems more likely that we've been lied to."

"I think we'll be having a word with that prisoner when we get back to Alpha Base," Captain Keyes said with a nod, concurring with the latter explanation. A wave of his hand set the Marines around him in motion, as they followed up in Sergeant Johnson's wake. "While we're here, though, we may as well confirm for ourselves what, if anything, is in this building. Even if we were lied to, it seems unlikely that our 'friend' would give us these coordinates at random."

"Very well," Chrono acknowledged as they caught up with the rest of their group.

Aside from the human force, the area was still oddly deserted, with the passages into the structure completely unguarded. Once inside, the group split up, one squad remaining behind to cover the retreat while Sergeant Johnson, Chrono, Captain Keyes, and the other squad of Marines continued deeper into the facility. And while the swamp had definitely made for somewhat unpleasant going, it lacked the almost active feel of malice that seemed to pervade the inside of the facility. It wasn't just the lack of Covenant, either. There was something else at work… but that was impossible, and so they continued deeper into the base, setting aside the concerns and doubts.

When they finally did run into a group of Covenant forces, it was almost a relief. At least until it was obvious that the entire Covenant patrol had already been killed, quite thoroughly. Chrono frowned as he surveyed the black-armored corpses. "These Elites, as you call them… most I've seen wear blue, with some red. There was the commander on the ship, when we were rescuing the Captain, in gold. Black, though…?"

Sergeant Johnson looked at the Bureau enforcer grimly. "Special forces. Their best troops."

Silence fell. The information was new only to Chrono, but hearing it said out loud reaffirmed the oddity of the situation for everyone else as well. It was clear that no one particularly wanted to follow that train of thought to its conclusion, but in the end Chrono spoke up again anyway. "Then what killed them?"

No one answered him. No one had any decent answers to that. The Elite corpses were torn and shredded in ways that went well beyond the wounds left by plasma fire or even bullet wounds; that much was apparent even to Chrono's examination. Blue-black blood covered the floor and even parts of the walls.

"We keep moving," Captain Keyes ordered. "Everyone stay alert. And Sergeant, call back to our second squad and warn them, as well. Something's definitely going on here."

Several minutes of exploration later, the group of Marines arrived at a door, securely closed, deep within the massive structure. The Marines spread out, their technical specialist moving up to examine the door while the rest of them maintained a perimeter around Captain Keyes. Chrono remained at the Captain's side, scanning the area for potential threats.

"This door's been locked by the Covenant," the young Marine examining the door reported. "Can't say why, though."

Captain Keyes glanced at the Sergeant, thinking out loud. "Perhaps there is something here after all. Why lock one of the doors?" He returned his attention to the door. "Right, well, let's get this door open."

"I'll try, sir," the Marine reported, "but it looks like these Covenant worked pretty hard to lock it down."

"If I may…?" Chrono interrupted. "I can always 'open' the door for us, as long as you don't mind not being able to close it once I'm done."

There was a quick moment of silence as the Marines digested that claim. None of them were carrying the kind of heavy weapons that would permit forcing the door open, and the ring world's architecture had proven itself to be surprisingly resilient to that kind of thing even when they tried. Captain Keyes spent that moment sizing up the young Bureau enforcer before shaking his head. "I'm sure the Corporal here can get the door open. Yes?"

"Yes, sir," he responded quickly, kneeling down in front of the door and pulling a digital lock-breaker out of his pack. Once he had it secured to the door, it took less than a minute of tapping away at the device's keyboard before the locked door slid open smoothly. Air wafted out into the corridor, carrying with it the strong smell of decay, as if the swamp above had somehow leaked into the building far below. The Marines piled into the room all the same, rifles leveled and ready for action, but the room was completely deserted. Raised area in the center, another door off to the side, what appeared to be a ledge up on the wall running around the perimeter of the room… and absolutely no signs of life. It was more than the lack of living things, though. There was no sign of anything having so much as passed through. Certainly, no Covenant cache of supplies or weapons.

Chrono followed Captain Keyes as he made his way into the room behind the protective squad of Marines, every instinct screaming at him to turn and run. Something was very seriously off about this place. A light rustling sound, something slithering across the stone floor…? But nothing moved within his field of vision. Why, then, was he feeling like they had just somehow stepped into a trap?

"I got a bad feeling about this…" one of the other Marines muttered, as if reading the Bureau enforcer's mind.

That drew the attention of Sergeant Johnson, but before he could rebuke the Marine, Chrono interrupted. "He's not the only one," he said with a glance at the Sergeant and the Captain. "Something is wrong…"

"Captain, Sarge, can you hear me?"

Everyone froze in place. The voice wasn't really coming out of nowhere; it was a communication from the other squad of Marines, but all the same Chrono felt his blood turn to ice. The tone of the man's voice…

"What's going on, soldier?" Keyes demanded insistently.

"We've got contacts! Lots of 'em! But… they're not Covenant!"

Instantly, Chrono connected the dots. Ignoring the continued screaming from the comm, the naked terror in the trained soldier's voice as he reported something that should not be, he began barking orders of his own. "Back toward the door! Weapons hot and be ready for anything!"

No one moved, Captain Keyes and Sergeant Johnson fixing the Bureau enforcer with varying degrees of surprise and irritation. It was the Sergeant who responded to the sudden imposition of authority. "Boy, I was under the impression that the Captain and I were in command here…"

"We found what the Covenant were interested in here, and in the process, we broke a seal," Chrono responded with iron control in his voice. "That door was locked not to keep us out, but to keep something else in! Now, do you want to find out what it is that they feared enough to seal away, in a situation when we have no information and no backup?! _Move!_"

With only the briefest hint of hesitation, the Marines moved. Even if the voice barking orders wasn't the one they were familiar with, they were well-trained enough to respond to the authority in Chrono's voice. Nor did the Sergeant or the Captain offer any further objections. Rather, they began moving back as well. Sergeant Johnson snarled, "Listen up, men, we're falling back to Second Squad's location-"

Now, the rustling noise was much louder and more obvious. Coming from all around them, to boot. A sharp clatter echoed through the cavernous room as a door off on the side gave way, and… _things_ began pouring through.

Some analytical corner of Chrono's mind acknowledged that that was not the best way to describe the creatures that were now swarming into the room through the side door. They were bulbous and looked vaguely slimy, skittering across the floor on a mass of tentacles that propelled them at a surprisingly high rate of speed. Individually, any one looked to be no larger than a human torso, but there was a veritable carpet of them coming into the room, making individual size a bit less relevant.

That analytical corner of his mind fell completely silent as a slow, creeping fear began to take hold. Leveling his staff-like Device, Chrono stared down the oncoming horde as he and the Marines around him retreated.

"Stinger Shot!"

A bolt of blue light shot out, twisting and curving as it tore into the mass of enemies. Directing it with a bit of mental effort, Chrono swept the magical attack through the enemies entirely, which exploded into puffs of gas and bits of flesh as the energy tore them apart. Emboldened by Chrono's success, the Marines opened fire with their assault rifles, adding to the devastation.

Then, something hit Chrono in the back, hard. Any semblance of organization or coordination among the Marines died in that single instant, as they acknowledged the bulbous, shapeless thing that had apparently dropped right out of nowhere into the middle of their defensive formation. And it was hardly alone. More of the creatures began swarming in from seemingly every direction, skittering down the walls and dropping from the ceiling to get at the Marines that had invaded their sanctuary.

In the instant Chrono felt the impact, he redirected his magical attack to sweep back around. He could feel the thing digging into his barrier jacket, but for the moment it seemed to be stymied by the unusual strength of the reinforced magical armor… and then the Stinger Shot that Chrono had fired swept back around and neatly cored the creature that had attacked him.

The explosion wasn't all that powerful, in the grand scheme of things. And yet at point-blank range, it managed to knock Chrono flat on the ground anyway. The smell of decay became briefly overpowering as the gas washed over him before dissipating, and his barrier jacket was scorched and torn, but he was still alive.

For now. Stumbling to his feet, he took in the tactical situation at a glance. It really was a wonder that the Marines weren't hitting each other, firing their rifles in every direction to deal with the swarm of foes. Even Captain Keyes had pulled out his pistol and was plugging its single shots into the horde. Nearby, one of the Marines struggled to drag one of the creatures off of a fallen friend. He apparently hadn't taken the creature's attack as well as Chrono had, but there was no time to spare for such thoughts now. More bolts of magic energy cut across the battlefield as Chrono opened up, doing his level best to keep as many people alive as he possibly could.

Meanwhile, he had a call to make. _Nanoha!_ They had never truly tested the range on telepathic communication, but they had also never had trouble communicating even over extreme distances. Surely she would be able to…

In the next moment, he heard a familiar voice in response. _Oh good, Chrono, I was just about to call you-_

_No time for the pleasantries!_ He was aware that his voice was probably coming off as more than a bit panic-stricken, but given that he was being attacked by what could only be some kind of _biological_ Lost Logia of all things, a little terror was probably understandable. _We__'re under attack and probably cut off from normal communications! Can you call in some support for us?!_

There was a long and highly unpleasant moment of silence. Chrono could practically hear Nanoha's helpless sigh. _I was going to ask that of you. We found the control room, but we__'re cut off ourselves._

Chrono spent one second of mental concentration on a sharp curse. _Wonderful. Get back in touch if anything changes. I__'ll call you back if we survive._ Before Nanoha could say anything in reply to that, he let his attention lapse, refocusing on the fight in front of him.

And the senior officer that was staring at him very strangely. Captain Keyes had long since holstered the pistol that he had been firing, ever since it had run out of ammo. Now forced to rely on the Marines and Chrono for his protection, there was very little else for him to accomplish. "Did you just say something?" he said quietly to Chrono.

The swarm showed no signs of letting up, and while Chrono's valiant efforts to keep the worst of it away seemed to be inspiring the Marines to hold their ground a bit longer, whatever was attacking them was seemingly countless and absolutely relentless. The sheer futility of the situation had left Chrono more than a bit on edge. Without even thinking, he snapped back, _What, you mean something like this?_

In the next moment, his brain caught up with him. Telepathic communication was one of the most basic expressions of magical ability, a simple means of speaking over long distances, or even over short distances if there was some reason why shouting wasn't advisable. Normally such communication was directed at a specific person or group of people, but in emergency situations it could be used to send a distress call to everyone within range. _Did I accidentally broadcast any of my call to Nanoha__…?_ Chrono wondered for a moment.

Well. At least it wouldn't reach everyone, not precisely. Everyone with the magical potential to understand it, perhaps. It took minimal training to be able to use telepathic communication, and none at all to hear it… _if_ you had the potential at all. If.

Even in the middle of a desperate fight for their lives, Chrono felt himself freeze for a second, jaw dropping open, staring at Captain Keyes as the senior officer said, "Yes-"

An explosion off to the side, very close, shocked Chrono out of his reverie and cut off whatever Captain Keyes was going to say in response. Chrono cast a quick glance off to the side, to where Sergeant Johnson was still firing his assault rifle. "Get the lead out, kid!" Dissipating scraps of gas made the reason for his cover fire all too clear, but he had already shifted his attention to the rest of the fight. "Jenkins! Fire your weapon!"

Reaching into a pocket of his barrier jacket, Chrono pulled out what looked like a playing card, silver and white with a glittering blue diamond embedded in its center. _And who would have thought I__'d end up needing two Devices for _this_ reason__…? Thank God Mother let me hold onto Durandal at least for the moment!_ Holding it tightly, he called out audibly, "Admin access, new user setup function online!" Without any further hesitation, he tossed the card smoothly over to Captain Keyes, who barely caught the flying object, surprise on his face.

Chrono had already returned his attention to the fight, firing another pattern of energy bolts that cleared out the room for a brief moment. "Captain, the device's name is Durandal! Call its name!"

The fight seemed to pause. With Chrono's help, the Marines had done a heroic job of clearing out the room, and the scattered creatures still left seemed to be almost hesitating. It gave Captain Keyes his moment to examine what it was that the Bureau enforcer had tossed to him. In size and shape it resembled a playing card, but instead of paper it was hard metal; the glowing blue diamond at its center pulsed softly, as if responding to the Captain's examination.

"Durandal…?" he said softly, almost at a whisper.

"System online. Beginning set up."

Captain Keyes started in surprise, staring at the Device he held in shock. Blue light filled the room, surrounding him with an aura of released power, as the card lifted gently out of his grasp to hover in front of him. And after a brief pause, it spoke again. "New user acknowledged. Defaulting to standard configuration for the barrier jacket and Device main form." The blue light shimmered ever more brightly, forming an opaque barrier, before the Captain could offer any response to that.

In the same moment, another wave of creatures poured through the far door, as if reacting to the beginning of his transformation. And with this latest wave…

"Are those Elites…?" one of the Marines asked. The hulking, lumbering forms that were entering the room with the swarm of smaller creatures certainly looked similar to the Covenant's elite troops. It was all too obvious, though, that something had changed them significantly. Their armor was broken and shattered, poorly fit over lumps and growths that didn't exist on a normal Elite. And while they moved awkwardly, as if motion didn't come naturally to them, they moved with surprising speed as they charged the small knot of humans huddling in front of the door they had come in through.

_Infection hazard_, the analytical corner of Chrono's brain reported dispassionately, noting the similarities in coloration and consistency between the 'Elites' and the smaller creatures still swarming into the room. _Natural evolution or bioweapon? Either way, it__'s clear that those smaller creatures can infect and subvert other organisms… like, oh, any of us, I imagine?_

He wasn't the only one to notice, either. "Take a good look, Marines!" Sergeant Johnson snarled loudly. "That's _your_ fate if you don't hold the line!"

Most of the Marines responded to him with grim determination. Of the squad they had brought with them this far, two had already been taken down by the creatures attacking them, not that any of those things had been left alive to enjoy their kills. However, two or three had already been wavering, pushed to the brink by the desperate situation. The arrival of the infected Elites was the last straw.

"This is loco, man!" one of them yelled, breaking for the door behind them.

"Get back here, Marine! That's an order!"

The fleeing Marine froze in place as the shimmering barrier protecting Captain Keyes exploded outward, throwing sparks of light in every direction. The Captain was no longer wearing his uniform, although it was difficult to tell as much at first glance. The barrier jacket he was wearing in its place bore distinct similarities to a UNSC dress uniform, although this one was navy blue with gold highlights on the shoulders and down the seams. In addition to those highlights, four gold bands wrapped around each cuff of the long-sleeved jacket. Beyond that, there was only one point of decoration: a silver emblem over the Captain's left breast, that of an eagle spreading its wings.

On top of that, Captain Keyes held a staff in his right hand. It was about as long as his arm and shining silver, coming to a spear-like point at one end. Two swept-back points gave that end of the staff a vaguely triangular shape, with the blue crystal from the card now in the very center of the staff's head.

Before anyone had more than a moment to gawk at the results of the transformation, the battle began anew. The infected Elites leaped forward, crushing through the thin line of Marines with bone-shattering force. Any Marine that they hit went down and stayed down, unmoving. Growling with rage, Sergeant Johnson deflected a blow with his assault rifle before pouring bullets into the enemy at point-blank range, dropping the infected Elite that had attempted to attack him. Blue light flashed all around as Chrono fired repeatedly, destroying the smaller creatures and the infected Elites with a hail of sword-like magical energy bolts.

In the midst of the chaos, one of the enemies leapt at Captain Keyes. With barely a moment to respond, he reacted on instinct, raising the hand holding his new staff into a blocking position. The half-remembered block from long-ago self defense classes wouldn't have been sufficient to hold off the infected Elite, but Durandal reacted to the motion by bringing up a shimmering golden shield in front of the Captain. He staggered back a step as the Elite hit it hard, but the shield held, and the Elite bounced backward a step or two, seemingly confused.

From behind him, Chrono called out, "Durandal will react to instinctual motions, whether offensive or defensive!"

"We are going to have to have another talk after this!" Captain Keyes yelled back almost bemusedly, bringing Durandal down to point at the infected Elite that had just attacked him. Obligingly, a shimmering bullet of magic energy fired, and the shield shattered outward as the bolt of energy tore its target in half.

"Need to get out of here first!" Chrono replied as he fired another wave of attacks himself, clearing the area around the surviving Marines for a brief moment.

As if in reply, the door that they had come in through shattered, pieces of metal flying into the room and the Marines clustered in front of it. Two more of the Marines, the ones that had attempted to flee, were battered to the ground as yet another wave of foes poured into the room. With a muttered curse, Chrono turned his attention to them, firing steadily.

"Damn things are never-ending!" Sergeant Johnson yelled, pulling a spent magazine out of his assault rifle. As he went to reload, he found nothing in any of his belt pouches, and knelt for a brief moment to pull more ammo off of one of the fallen Marines. Aside from the Captain and Chrono, he was the only Marine left standing.

"Back the way we came!" Chrono yelled, for lack of anything better to suggest. "I'll clear a path if you two can cover the rear!"

Passing through the now-open doorway, the Captain paused for a brief moment. Defending the rear was made much easier by the choke point that the door offered, but surely there was a way to delay them even further…? Briefly, he spared a moment of irritation for the ruins that the creatures had left where the door had once been. If they could have closed that, re-locked it…? But no, they needed an even stronger wall than that, considering that the enemy had broken down the door.

In his hand, Durandal seemed to be glowing. He felt a chill in the air, a freezing wind that swirled around him. "It can be done," a mechanical voice reported, the Device in his hand neutrally providing information. And as if in a daze, being driven by something outside him, he slowly raised the staff. His eyes slid closed, focusing inward. The sounds around him - Sergeant Johnson firing his assault rifle to hold back the enemies charging the door, Chrono firing magic attacks into the few enemies approaching from the other direction - faded before a haze of power, called forth by his will alone.

_Hold the line_.

"Sergeant! Cease fire!"

It was an impossible order, an order that by all rights should have gotten them all killed. And yet, loyalty to the Captain and the chain of command was too well ingrained in Sergeant Johnson, driving the appropriate reaction before he had time to think through the consequences. The assault rifle fell silent, and the Sergeant fell back a step.

At the same time, the Captain's eyes shot open, intently focused on the doorway they had just passed through. Durandal acknowledged his will with two words of its own.

"Frozen Barricade."

A blue-white flash filled the air. A jagged, lightning-like lance of pure power flowed forth, reaching the doorway just as the lead infected Elite did. Seemingly in an instant, the air temperature dropped sharply, and ice seemed to manifest out of nowhere. Before anyone had time to so much as blink, a thick wall of solid ice filled the doorway, trapping the lead Elite and completely blocking the choke point.

Having cleared the scattered enemies in front of them, Chrono turned back, slowing his pace slightly. With a low whistle, he surveyed the Captain's work. "Impressive, Captain. Knowing Durandal, that should hold them for-"

A loud crack filled the air. Chips of ice flew outward as a hair-thin crack appeared through the center of the ice wall.

"Less time than we might like," Captain Keyes finished for him, entirely too calmly. "We can talk on the run."

Suiting action to words, the three surviving members of the team took off at a run back through the building.

* * *

Breathing heavily, the three of them emerged from the darkened hallways of the structure into the gloomy, overcast swamp surrounding it. The door they had chosen led out onto a ledge above ground level, offering them at least a momentary respite from combat.

It had not been an easy run. While this new enemy force had never concentrated against them in quite the same numbers as that first disastrous encounter, they had been scattered throughout the building in steady waves, offering little chance for them to stop and catch any kind of break. And while Captain Keyes had been able to contribute occasional bursts of magic, his power was inconsistent at best thanks to his inexperience. Sergeant Johnson was almost inhumanly tough, but he had been reduced to scavenging weapons when and where he could find them several waves ago, and the Covenant plasma rifle he was carrying at the moment was nearly dead.

That forced Chrono to be the one carrying most of the load, and it showed. His barrier jacket was torn and discolored in numerous places, evidence of the battering he had received. After a moment, when it became obvious that there was no immediate threat, he sank to the ground, laying his Device on the metal next to him. "I need a moment," he said tiredly.

Captain Keyes just nodded, keeping an eye on the door they had just come through. Next to him, Sergeant Johnson activated his communications system, calling out to the Pelican that had brought them to the site. It didn't take long for him to start cursing. "Captain, I'm not getting any response from our bird. Something must have brought it down."

"We're outside comm range with Alpha Base?" the Captain confirmed.

Sergeant Johnson nodded. "At least with only my helmet comm to work with, Captain."

"Durandal," Chrono cut in. "Is he flight capable?"

Dead silence filled the air, with Captain Keyes and Sergeant Johnson staring at the Bureau enforcer. Their attention quickly shifted to the device in Chrono's hand as it replied. "Negative, boss."

Captain Keyes sighed. "Should I be relieved that _all_ of the laws of physics haven't been invalidated yet, or disappointed that I've apparently failed to reach some milestone without even knowing it?"

Chrono shrugged, standing up again. "Even among mages, some are better than others. The elite are the aerial mages, those that can fly under their own power. It's not a common skill, but I had to ask just to be sure." He frowned slightly. "It would have made getting back to base possible; with two people flight-capable, we could have supported a third, but I can't get both of you back with me if only I can take that option."

"That may be the option we have to take anyway," Captain Keyes said a bit sternly. "Especially if the Chief's team is also pinned down, it may be more important to get back to base and have them send relief missions as soon as possible."

A heavy silence fell as they considered their options. Undoubtedly their absence would be noticed eventually, but it would take time for it to be noticed, and more time on top of that for a rescue to be organized. And if the other group was in trouble… Chrono stiffened, remembering the brief call that Nanoha had sent earlier. It was a matter of a moment's concentration to attempt to reopen communication. _Nanoha, are you there?_

A long moment passed with no answer. Before Chrono could give up on the call entirely, though, a reply came back. _Busy. Fighting. I'll call you._ In the next instant, the communication cut off, as quickly as it had begun.

Catching the look on Chrono's face, Sergeant Johnson fixed him with an intent stare. "Trying to place a call of your own, kid?"

"I mean," Chrono said heavily, "she responded, at least."

Picking up on the "at least", Sergeant Johnson practically snarled. "So they _are_ in trouble, then."

"Captain," Chrono asked suddenly, "would you mind trading Devices for a moment?" The battered enforcer clambered back to his feet, face hardening into an expression of angry determination. "Whatever we do, we definitely need to keep moving, and I have one more thing I'd like to do before we leave."

With a shrug, Captain Keyes passed over Durandal, receiving Chrono's staff in return. He looked at it with a curious expression, examining it carefully. "This feels… different, somehow."

"It should," Chrono informed him. "Once we get a free moment, there's a lot I need to talk to you about. For now, I'll just put it this way: that Device doesn't have an AI, and is a bit less user-friendly as a result. With the proper training, you would find it more than adequate for your needs… but since we don't have the time to spare for detailed lessons, I'm mostly going to entrust Durandal to you, since he'll be able to at least act on his own initiative to assist you where he can."

As he spoke, four floating panels materialized out of thin air to surround Chrono and Durandal. The shield-like objects bore a striking similarity to the Intelligent Device, matching its color scheme if nothing else. Acting at Chrono's will, they spread out, vanishing into the mists of the swamp. One remained close by, hovering a short distance away from the building they had just left.

"We should back up a little," Chrono suggested. He held out a hand to Captain Keyes. "If you two will join hands as well, I'm sure I can drag both of you for at least a little bit."

The momentary flight was not at all comfortable, but within a minute the three were perched up in the branches of a massive tree nearby. From the higher vantage point, Captain Keyes and Sergeant Johnson realized that the four miniature flying units had spread out to mark the corners of a massive square surrounding the nearby structure.

"Dare I even ask…?" Captain Keyes said softly.

Chrono smiled wickedly. "Remember what you did to the door?" Before either of them could respond to that, Durandal came down to point directly at the building, and Chrono spoke one more word.

"Freeze!"

Once more, a searingly bright flash of blue-white energy leapt forth, in time with a triumphantly declared "Eternal Coffin" from Durandal. The jagged rays of power seemed to bounce off their target, filling the air around the building until it hit the flying units, at which point it reflected again to consume the space that had been marked off. A thick layer of ice emerged with shocking speed, covering the entire structure and sapping any hint of heat or life from the creatures within.

When the Captain had used Durandal to cast ice magic, the air temperature had noticeably dropped, momentarily producing an uncomfortably cold pocket of air. This time, with Chrono in control, ice crystals formed on his barrier jacket as the entire area for hundreds of meters around was dropped into the dead of winter in an instant. His breath emerged as a misty white cloud before breaking up and drifting away. By the time it faded, the structure and the creatures within it had been sealed away under an iceberg that could have put a sizable dent in the _Pillar of Autumn_.

Captain Keyes felt his jaw drop. Oh, there had been power in his hands, when the Device called Durandal had been helping him to survive the fight that they had been thrown into. But to do something like this with it…? Chrono caught the look the Captain was giving him and smiled again, offering him Durandal as he held a hand out to receive his other device in return. The four flying units, the add-on devices that had aided Chrono's magic, faded back into nothingness as the Captain took Durandal in hand again.

"Think of it as inspiration to improve," Chrono told the Captain dryly. "I promise I'll arrange for proper instruction for you when I get the chance. Now-"

"A truly novel approach to containment!"

The three of them all started in surprise as an unfamiliar voice filled the air. It took little effort to determine where it was coming from, given that its source, what seemed to be a floating sphere, was making no effort to hide itself. Whatever it was, it was a cool silver with a blue eye-like core that flashed in time with its speech… and yet despite the similarity in color scheme, its design was markedly different from the Device that Captain Keyes held in his hand.

"Greetings," the flying robot said. "I am the Monitor of Installation zero-four. I am 343 Guilty Spark."

Sergeant Johnson eyed the floating ball skeptically. "You're in charge here?"

"Oh no, no," 343 Guilty Spark replied almost earnestly. "I am merely a caretaker, set to oversee the Installation and ensure its continued functionality. I would not dare assume authority over the Installation! My primary function…" The speech came to a halt as the AI realized it had somehow gotten ahead of itself. He hovered there for a moment, turning slightly as if to survey the three people in front of him, before continuing with a speech that sounded almost pre-recorded. "Someone has released the Flood. My function is to prevent it from leaving this installation, but I require your assistance."

Captain Keyes stepped in at that point, cutting off the AI. "In what way?"

"Pardon?" 343 Guilty Spark seemed confused by the interruption.

"You require our assistance," Captain Keyes confirmed. "What do you need us to do?"

"Oh!" the AI replied quickly. "We must secure the Index so that we may activate the Installation."

At that point, Chrono fixed the floating AI with a stern glare and tried to enter the conversation himself. "And what will-"

However, 343 Guilty Spark had already continued speaking, talking over Chrono's attempt to ask a question. "Time is of the essence. Your ingenious method of securing the research facility has bought us precious little time, and we must prevent the Flood from leaving this installation. Come. This way."

Before any of them could protest, shimmering rings of energy descended out of nowhere, whisking them all away.


End file.
